PB 
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B32 


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TEACHING  OF  MODERN 


i^ANGUAGES 


OPOLD  BAHLSEN 


UHWtftSlTf  OP 
CAUfORNiA 
(AH  DtKOO 


lilllllfliri'll  llll?l^„?^,V,^,?,R.^'A.  SAN  D 


3  1822  02677  3499 


Leopold  Kahlsen 

From  a  recent  photograph 


THE    TEACHING    OF    MODERN 
LANGUAGES 


BY 


LEOPOLD    BAHLSEN,    Ph.D. 

Oberlehrkr  in  the  Realschulen  of  Berlin;  Lecturer  on  Methods  of  Teaching 

French  and  German,  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University,  1902-1903  ; 

Imperial  German  Commissioner  to  the  St.  Louis  Exposition 


TRANSLATED   FROM   THE  GERMAN 


M.  BLAKEMORE   EVANS,  Ph.D. 

Instructor  in  German  in  the  University  of  Wisconsin 


GINN  c^  COMPANY 

BOSTON  .  NEW  YORK  •  CHICAGO  •  LONDON 


Copyright,  1903 
By  teachers  COLLEGE 


Copyright,  1905 
By  GINN  &   COMPANY 


ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 


Cl)c  Sttljenacum  J)rcs6 

GINN  &  COMPANY- CAM- 
BRIDGE •  MASSACHUSETTS 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.    Methods  of  Language  Teaching.     A  Historical  Sketch       i 

II.    The  Reform  of  Modern-Language  Teaching  in  Ger- 
many   19 

III.  Pronunciation.     Phonetics,  Sound-Physiology,  Phonetic 

Transcription 35 

IV.  First  Instruction  in  French  and  German  on  a  Pho- 

netic Basis 47 

V.    The  Analytical-Inductive  Method 60 

VI.    German    Grammar    as    taught    by   the    Analytical- 
Inductive  Method 75 

VII.    A  Reading  Course  in  German  for  Secondary  Schools    86 


THE    TEACHING    OF 

MODERN    LANGUAGES 


I.  METHODS  OF  LANGUAGE  TEACHING 

A  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

The  question  of  methods  has  doubtless  occupied  the  attention  of 
teachers  as  long  as  language  teaching  has  existed.  There  was  a 
time,  however,  when  there  was  no  dispute  regarding  those  questions 
which  are  to-day  most  generally  discussed ;  when  each  language 
teacher,  apart  from  the  slight  peculiarities  of  his  own  individuality, 
pursued  the  same  course. 

In  this  place  we  are  interested  merely  in  /ore/gn-\2ingua.ge  teaching ; 
and  in  our  discussion  we  must  begin  at  a  point  before  civilized  peo- 
ple, in  the  accepted  meaning  of  the  word,  inhabited  North  America. 
There  was  at  that  time  in  the  Old  World  but  one  foreign  language  in 
the  schools  :  Latin.  It  was  not  until  later  that  Greek  was  added ; 
it  was  not  until  after  the  destruction  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks 
(1453)  that  highly  educated  Greeks  fled  toward  the  West,  taking 
with  them  their  language  and  the  remains  of  their  art.  Latin  became 
thereafter  the  common  language  of  the  educated,  of  the  learned. 
Whoever  would  rise  to  higher  refinement,  whoever  would  enjoy  the 
beauties  of  the  classics,  was  obliged  to  learn  the  ancient  languages, 
—  there  was  no  other  possibility.  And  the  purpose  of  such  study 
indicated  at  once  and  in  a  perfectly  natural  manner  the  way  to  be 
followed  —  and  the  means  of  making  the  start  in  this  way.  Students 
wished  to  understand  the  classics.  Without  further  ado  they  took  up 
the  various  authors  and  began  to  decipher  them,  gradually  becoming 
at  home  in  the  language. 

In  the  Latin  schools  Cicero  was  put  into  the  hands  of  the  beginners. 
He  furnished  the  model  for  classical  Latin,  and  his  example  taught 
the  pupils  how  they  must  express  themselves  if  they  would  be  intel- 
ligible to  their  learned  contemporaries  ;  he  offered  the  standard  of 


2  THE  TEACHING   OF  MODERN  LANGUAGES 

polished  oratorical  style  ;  they  could  learn  from  him  the  diction  to 
employ  in  their  own  eloquent  utterances,  —  in  other  words,  they  could 
learn  from  him  how  to  sj>cak  Latin.  The  language  of  Homer  —  so 
they  argued  naively  but  with  sound  logic  —  must  be  studied  from 
Homer;  hence  the  Humanists  put  the  Iliad  ox  the  Otfysscy  into  the 
hands  of  their  pupils  from  the  very  beginning. 

That  was  naturally  at  first  a  laborious  undertaking,  and  the  advance 
discouragingly  slow ;  but  on  the  other  hand  no  halt  was  made  for 
declensional  and  conjugational  drill,  and  the  author  was  not  pulled 
to  pieces  for  the  sake  of  grammar.  The  student  strove  sympathet- 
ically to  get  at  the  sense  of  what  he  studied ;  as  the  reading  pro- 
gressed, grammatical  instruction  and  perspicuity  came  to  him  by  way 
of  incidental  profit,  —  naturally  not  a  perfect  grammatical  structure, 
artistically  put  together,  not  an  unbroken,  exact  knowledge  of  all 
the  categories,  rules,  and  exceptions,  but  still  sufficient  to  let  the 
pupil  avoid  grave  blunders  in  written  or  oral  expression.  In  addi- 
tion it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  men  ^  who  underwent  such  a 
course  of  instruction  —  essentially  a  reading  course  —  assimilated 
from  their  wide  and  intense  reading  so  rich  an  abundance  of  Latin 
phrases  that  it  was  indeed  the  very  language  of  Cicero  which  they 
spoke,  —  ipsissima  verba,  —  his  expressions,  which  had  become  part 
of  their  own  flesh  and  blood. 

It  was  not  necessary  that  profound  grammatical  knowledge  should 
supplement  this.  That  was  not  of  primary  importance.  Their  aim 
was  fluency  and  skill  in  written  and  oral  expression,  attained  by 
a  first-hand  acquaintance  with  the  classical  literature,  so  far  as  it 
was  then  known, 

Philipp  Melanchthon,  the  learned  friend  of  the  great  reformer,  — 
the  Praeceptor  Germanise,  —  called  grammar  certa  scribendi  et  loquendi 
ratio,  meaning  that  it  was  of  importance  for  the  writing  and  speak- 
ing of  foreign  tongues.  From  his  own  words  one  can  see  that  he 
thought  of  grammar  as  no  end  or  object  in  itself.  For  him  the  goal 
was  a  mastery  of  the  language.  But  that  in  his  time  scholars  had 
begun  to  disregard  the  value  of  speaking  Latin  in  the  class-room  can 
be  inferred  from  the  vigorous  statement  of  Martin  Luther,  who  gave 
school  teachers  directions  to  force  open  the  mouths  of  their  chil- 
dren, i.e.  to  compel  them  to  speak  :  a  piece  of  advice  that  present-day 
teachers  might  well  take  to  heart.     We  too  often  feel  in  language 

1  Learned  women,  as  for  example  the  nun  Roswitha  von  Gandersheim,  whose 
works  were  written  in  Latin,  appear  only  as  isolated  exceptions. 


METHODS  OF  LANGUAGE  TEACHING  3 

teaching  the  inclination  to  speak  overmuch  ourselves,  instead  of  incit- 
ing the  pupils  to  speak — instead  of  introducing  them  to  the  art  of 
fluent  expression.  Even  in  the  writings  of  the  very  latest  educational 
reformers  can  be  heard  Luther's  demand  :  "Not  too  much  drill  on 
rules, —  compel  the  children  to  speak." 

But  when  the  intellectual  treasures  of  antiquity  had  become  com- 
mon property,  after  the  classical  writings  had  been  read  again  and 
again,  the  pedagogues  could  not  withstand  the  temptation  to  illu- 
mine the  formal  side  of  these  works  in  a  genuine  philological  manner. 
Out  of  the  texts  were  dug  the  foundation  stones  of  a  grammatical 
structure,  artistic  and  symmetrical,  so  that  finally  a  dead  system  of 
rules  acquired  independent  value.  Grammar,  which  at  first  had  been 
a  servant  in  the  acquisition  of  language,  now  too  often  became  the 
mistress,  and  beginners  in  Latin  sighed  under  its  tyrannous  yoke.  It 
kept  its  place,  nevertheless,  and  for  several  centuries  held  undisputed 
sway,  while  the  real  speaking  and  writing  of  Latin  disappeared  almost 
entirely.  That  earlier  goal  which  had  actually  been  reached  was  no 
longer  striven  for.  This  decided  preference  for  the  merely  formal 
side  of  grammar  could  be  neither  honestly  denied  nor  defended,  and 
so  the  scholars  sought  to  impute  to  their  grammatical  activity  another 
and  loftier  aim.  The  glorious  catch-word  of  the  "  logical  schooling  " 
of  the  youthful  intellect  was  conveniently  discovered,  and  with  an 
air  of  much  authority  the  pedagogues  sought  to  demonstrate  that  no 
more  elevating,  more  sure  means  of  mental  gymnastics  existed  than 
the  study  of  grammar.  Philologians  of  keen  and  sober  judgment  came 
out  of  such  schoolrooms  ;  but  language  teaching  became  utter  desola- 
tion, and  only  here  and  there  were  real  friends  won  for  the  study  of  a 
foreign  tongue.  These  ardent  admirers  of  grammar  succeeded  nobly 
in  rendering  Plato  or  Cicero  heartily  loathsome  to  youth,  which  in 
former  centuries  had  received  inspiration  from  their  richness  of 
thought  and  beauty  of  form! 

What  wonder  then  that  at  last  from  the  ranks  of  the  philologians 
themselves  the  warning  sounded  ever  more  insistently  :  "  Do  not  for- 
get the  language  itself  in  the  consideration  of  its  grammar ;  do  not 
neglect  the  author,  his  work,  his  intrinsic  worth,  for  the  sake  of  an 
analytical,  philological  inspection  of  sentence  and  word-form!" 

Wolfgang  Ratichius,  a  scholar  who  taught  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew, 
and  French  in  Holland  (1600)  and  afterwards  in  Anhalt-Kothen,  was 
happily  able  to  realize  his  ideas  of  reform  and  to  have  text-books 
printed.     He  pointed  with  emphasis  back  to  the  old  times,  when  the 


4  THE  TEACllINC;   OF   MODERN   LANGUAGES 

Student  had  bothered  little  about  grammatical  rules  and  had  com- 
mitted but  little  to  memory,  but  when  instead  an  author  had  been 
.taken  from  the  first  hour  of  study  and  so  industriously  read  that  the 
pupil  soon  became  familiar  with  his  language.  Ratichius  advocated 
the  empirical,  inductive  method,  and  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
rules  if  the  necessity  for  their  application  had  not  already  arisen  from 
the  reading. 

At  almost  the  same  time  a  more  natural  teaching  of  language  was 
demanded  by  Johann  Amos  Comenius,  who,  broken  by  the  storms  of 
the  Thirty  Years'  War,  died  in  the  Netherlands  (1670)  after  a  long, 
restless,  and  roving  life.  But  before  his  death  his  Didactka  Magna, 
hxs/afiua  Linguanivi  Reserata,  and  above  all  else  his  Orbis  Sensua/ium 
Pictus  had  carried  his  pedagogical  fame  throughout  the  entire  civilized 
world.  A  modern  note  strikes  our  ears  when  in  the  third  book  of  his 
Didactka  we  hear  the  renowned  teacher  assert  so  forcibly  :  "  Every 
language  must  be  learned  by  practice  rather  than  by  rules  ;  especially 
by  hearing,  reading,  repeating,  copying,  and  by  written  and  oral 
attempts  at  imitation." 

Comenius  was  the  first  to  recognize  fully  the  value  of  visualization 
for  language  teaching,  and  in  the  pictures  of  his  Orbis  Pictus  he 
showed  his  pupils  the  objects  for  which  they  had  to  find  a  name  in 
the  new  language.  It  was  due  to  the  weight  of  his  powerful  person- 
ality that  the  underlying  idea  of  his  World  in  Picture  won  practical 
significance,  —  unfortunately,  however,  only  for  a  time. 

Repeatedly  language  teachers  fell  back  into  the  errors  which  had 
been  attacked  by  the  above-named  reformers  ;  again  and  again  gram- 
matical rules  were  taken  as  the  starting-point.  In  desperation  Labie- 
nus,  a  schoolman  of  the  seventeenth  century,  exclaimed  :  "  What  is 
grammar  other  than  a  drag  to  studies,  a  torture  to  the  youthful  intel- 
lect, a  squanderer  of  the  best  talents  !  "  And  the  English  philosopher 
John  Locke  (1632-1704)  constantly  asserted:  "Whoever  wishes  to 
read  the  classics  needs  no  grammatical  training."  One  would  have 
thought  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau's  powerful  battle-cry,  Let  us  return  to 
Nature!  would  also  have  aroused  language  teachers  all  along  the  line 
to  the  employment  of  more  natural  methods.  But  as  the  other  way 
was  easier  to  traverse,  they  held  pedantically  fast  to  it,  despite  the 
discontent  of  tormented  school  children  ;  while  the  endeavors  of  Base- 
dow and  the  philanthropists  to  start  from  observation  and  experience, 
to  begin,  after  the  example  of  Comenius,  with  the  Realien,  to  discuss 
pictures  in  the  foreign  language,  remained  more  or  less  isolated. 


METHODS  OF   LANGUAGE  TEACHING  5 

And  what  the  condition  of  language  teaching  was  in  the  German 
schools,  even  as  late  as  the  fourth  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
we  learn  from  the  account  of  Kroger,  lecturer  at  the  Waisenhaus 
in  Halle  :  "  In  the  general  course  of  language  teaching  a  grammar 
is  put  into  the  hands  of  the  pupil,  he  is  made  to  memorize  words, 
declensions,  conjugations,  rules  (and  if  possible  a  large  number  of 
exceptions  at  the  same  "time),  to  write  translations  and  compositions, 
etc.  After  seven  or  eight  school  years  which  include  thousands  of 
hours  of  language  study  freighted  with  unutterable  misery,  the  pupil 
has  read  several  primers  and,  in  a  fragmentary  way,  a  few  authors, 
but  is  often  unable  to  write  a  composition  in  the  foreign  language 
without  mistake  or  with  any  approach  to  elegance  of  diction.  He 
can  not  read  the  simple  words  of  a  historian  or  a  poet  without  diffi- 
culty, and  for  the  culture  of  the  foreign  country  about  which  he  is 
studying  he  has  little  or  no  appreciation.  This  study  of  dead  words 
and  forms,  these  tiring  feats  of  memory,  this  brooding  over  sentences 
the  solution  of  which  is  beyond  the  strength  of  the  child,  do  not  con- 
tribute to  intellectual  culture,  do  not  create  a  readiness  of  thought, 
a  many-sidedness  of  judgment.  On  the  contrary,  the  fruit  of  such  a 
course  of  instruction,  which  by  a  more  natural  method  would  prove 
so  important  a  factor  in  the  aggregate  training  of  the  child,  is  an 
actual  aversion  to  learning  and  a  dullness  of  intellect.  This  method 
is  likewise  but  poorly  adapted  to  the  child's  nature  :  for  he  has  no 
pleasure  in  the  grammatical  importance  of  the  word  and  it  is  a  matter 
of  complete  indifference  to  him  in  what  case  the  word  Ccesar  is ;  he 
asks  what  Caesar  didT 

So  wrote  Dr.  Kroger  as  late  as  1833,  and  about  fifteen  years  later 
Jacob  Grimm  delivered  like  judgment. 

In  the  meantime  modern  languages  had  come  to  occupy  a  position 
as  important  as  that  of  Latin  and  Greek,  even  if  up  to  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century  they  had  been  sadly  neglected.  The  peoples 
of  the  Old  and  New  Worlds  had  entered  into  more  active  commer- 
cial relations,  into  an  increasing  and  lively  exchange  of  intellectual 
and  literary  treasures.  New  educational  ideas  began  very  slowly 
and  gradually  to  ripen.  But  the  men  who  undertook  to  introduce  the 
youth  of  a  country  to  the  languages  of  other  civilized  peoples  had 
for  the  most  part  undergone  the  traditional  philological  training ; 
hence  nothing  was  more  natural  than  that  they  should  teach  the 
modern  foreign  languages  just  as  the  classics  had  been  taught 
them.     It  was  this  class  of  teachers  who  developed  those  artistically 


6  THE  TEACHING  OE  MODERN   LANGUAGES 

symmetrical  methods  and  didactics  of  which  we  can  form  a  fairly 
clear  estimate  from  the  above  quoted  memoirs  of  Kroger. 

Naturally  I  can  not  discuss  here  in  detail  the  almost  limitless  num- 
ber of  older  and  newer  grammars  whose  purpose  has  been  to  make 
foreigners  conversant  with  the  German  language  ;  but  it  is,  never- 
theless, of  interest  to  know  that  a  German  grammar  for  English 
learners  appeared  as  early  as  16S7.  The  author  was  a  certain  Ofife- 
len ;  the  publisher,  a  London  bookseller.  The  book  possesses  a 
purely  historical  interest,  but  if  anyone  should  wish  to  look  into  the 
matter  more  carefully,  I  would  recommend  an  article  by  Victor  in 
the  tenth  volume  of  Englische  Studien. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  success  of  Mei- 
dinger  began  to  attract  the  attention  of  language  teachers  throughout 
Europe. 

Johann  Valentin  Meidinger  was  born  in  the  year  1756  in  Frank- 
fort-on-the-Main,  passed  his  life  there  as  a  teacher  of  French  and 
Italian,  and  died  in  1822.  Of  him  Ollendorff,  his  successor  in  method, 
says  :  "  He  holds  the  highest  rank  of  all  who  have  rendered  essential 
service  to  language  teaching."  And  Meidinger  too  would  seem 
to  hold  his  own  method  in  high  regard,  for  on  the  title-page  of  his 
French  grammar,  published  in  1783,  he  speaks  of  his  "entirely  new 
principle,  by  means  of  which  one  can  learn  the  language  thoroughly 
and  quickly  by  an  altogether  new  and  very  easy  method." 

It  was  natural  for  these  same  principles  to  be  applied  to  the  Ger- 
man language,  little  as  the  boastful  title  of  the  grammar  corre- 
sponded with  the  results  attained  from  the  study  of  it.  Meidinger 
prepared  the  way  for  a  certain  advance  in  method.  He  was,  it  is 
true,  without  thorough  training  and  with  but  a  deficient  mastery  of 
German  grammar,  but  none  the  less  an  old  Fraktikus  \^\\o,  whenever 
possible,  cleverly  united  the  new  method  with  the  successful  achieve- 
ments of  the  old.  The  classification  of  material  according  to  the 
parts  of  speech  he  retained,  but  from  the  first  chapter  on  he  offered 
ample  opportunity  for  the  practical  application  of  these  parts  of 
speech  and  of  the  rules,  in  the  form  of  translations  into  foreign  lan- 
guage. To  make  such  a  course  possible  before  the  discussion  of  the 
verb  is  reached  there  are  but  two  ways  :  either  to  limit  one's  self  to 
short  phrases  of  no  content,  disconnected  expressions  without  verbs  ; 
or  to  offer  complete  sentences  in  which  everything  new  is  translated 
in  foot-notes.  Both  courses  were  adopted  by  Meidinger,  and  hence 
we  find  in  his  books  fragmentary  formulas  such  as  "the  king  of  the 


METHODS   OF   LANGUAGE  TEACHING  7 

land,  the  neighbor's  uncle,  your  cousin's  mother-in-law,"  etc.,  as  well 
as  complete  sentences  like  "Of  what  do  you  speak?"  "We  speak 
of  the  place  and  the  weather,"  where  foot-notes  afford  help  as  follows : 
"  Of  what  do  you  speak  ?  =  3Son  tua§  rebet  il)r?"  "  We  speak  of  ,  .  . 
=  9Bir  reben  t»on."  What  work  then  is  left  for  the  pupil  ?  He  believes 
that  he  is  translating,  while  in  reality  he  is  simply  reading  the  larger 
part  directly  from  the  book.  But  still  these  grammars  of  Meidinger 
denote  an  advance  in  method.  They  attempt  to  treat  pronuncia- 
tion clearly;  they  no  longer  arbitrarily  separate  accidence  and  syn- 
tax; they  apply  the  rules  in  practical  sentences;  they  even  make  a 
beginning  in  conversation  and  offer  models  of  epistolary  style  ;  they 
widen  the  vocabulary  with  expressions  from  the  commercial  and 
business  worlds, — and  thus  they  seek  to  meet  the  practical  needs 
of  practical  life  more  adequately  than  had  been  the  case  hitherto. 

Meidinger  himself  could  not  write  a  text-book  for  English  and 
American  pupils,  as  he  did  not  know  English  enough  to  warrant  such  an 
undertaking.  But  others  did  it  for  him,  pursuing  exactly  the  course 
indicated  ;  e.g.  Schirm,  in  his  book,  long  since  antiquated.  The  Speak- 
ing Method,  or  the  Shortest,  Easiest,  and  Surest  Way  to  Learn  the  Ger- 
ma?i  Language. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  Jean  Jacques  Jacotot 
was  much  spoken  of  as  a  language  teacher  in  France  and  Belgium. 
He  was  born  in  Dijon  in  the  year  1770,  and  became  successively 
teacher,  lawyer,  officer  in  the  army,  director  of  the  Polytechnic 
School  in  Paris,  professor  of  French  at  the  University  of  Louvain, 
and  director  of  a  military  school  in  the  same  city,  dying  in  Paris  in 
1840,  His  motto  was  Tout  est  dajis  tout,  and  in  accordance  with 
this  belief  he  began  instruction  in  French  with  a  coherent  "  whole," 
with  the  reading  of  what  in  his  day  was  a  classical  work,  the  Telhnaque 
of  Fe'nelon,  from  which  he  sought  to  derive  all  grammatical  knowl- 
edge. The  pupils  had  to  read  a  great  deal ;  striking  sentences 
were  especially  drilled  and  memorized  ;  after  a  time  similar  instances 
were  collected  and  the  pupils  were  directed  to  deduce  from  these 
analogous  examples  the  grammatical  law  for  themselves. 

Many  a  practical  idea  which  the  good  Jacotot  uttered  was  admired 
because  of  its  originality,  trite  as  its  phrasing  sounds  to  modern  ears: 
"  Join  the  new  to  the  old  which  the  pupil  already  securely  possesses  ! 
Repeat  often,  and  strengthen  the  memory  by  frequent  memorizing 
and  repetition  ! "  Jacotot's  mistake  was  that  he  did  not  advance 
carefully  and  logically  from  the  easy  to  the  difficult.    He  followed 


8  THE  TEACHING  OF  MODERN   LANGUAGES 

his  author  blindly,  ever  and  again  coming  back  to  the  beginning  of 
his  story,  which  tinally  became  utterly  distasteful  to  the  pupil ;  and 
his  choice  of  the  difficult  Tclhiiaque  to  serve  as  the  foundation  for 
such  a  course  was  most  unfortunate  :  it  is  no  wonder  that  in  the  end 
both  teacher  and  pupil  lost  interest. 

His  contemporary,  James  Hamilton,  born  in  London  in  the  year 
1769,  believed  that  he  had  learned  German  in  Hamburg  by  a  "  new 
and  peculiar  method."  Later  he  taught  French  in  New  York  after 
this  same  method,  and  then  returned  to  Europe,  where  he  died  in 
Dublin  in  1S30.  He  was  the  first  to  edit  modern  foreign-language 
text-books  with  an  interlinear  translation.  Hamilton's  plan  was  to 
begin  at  once  with  a  word-for-word  translation  of  his  author,  and 
thus  without  any  further  parley  provide  his  pupils  as  soon  as  possible 
with  the  knowledge  of  a  large  number  of  words  and  grammatical 
formulas.  Then  by  an  analytical  method  he  prepared  the  way  for  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  even  the  more  difficult  rules.  At  the  time, 
this  method  made  a  great  sensation  in  America,  England,  and  France  ; 
in  Germany  it  aroused  at  first  lively  opposition,  but  little  by  little 
teachers  began  to  follow  it,  especially  recommending  the  method  to 
such  as  wished  to  learn  a  foreign  language  quickly  and  for  practical 
purposes.  The  same  treatment  was  applied  even  to  the  dead  lan- 
guages, and  in  later  text-books  many  of  its  evident  weaknesses  were 
corrected.  Hamilton's  criticism  of  Jacotot's  text  was  correct :  one 
should  rather  begin  with  an  easy  author.  But  what  did  he  regard  as 
the  "very  easiest"  book  that  had  ever  been  written  in  any  language.-' 
Strangely  enough,  the  Gospel  according  to  St.  John  ! 

It  may  be  noted  here  that  long  after  Hamilton's  death  two  Berlin 
publishers,  Toussaint  and  Langenscheidt,  met  with  great  success  in 
their  Utitcrrichtsbriefen  (correspondence  lessons)  by  the  employment 
of  this  principle  of  interlinear  translation.  For  the  starting-point  of  all 
grammatical  instruction  they  chose  a  connected  text  from  nineteenth- 
century  prose,  divided  it  into  short  chapters,  and  treated  it  cleverly 
for  the  purposes  of  private  study  in  the  form  of  letters  "  from  the 
teacher  to  his  pupils."  The  pronunciation  of  sounds  is  indicated 
with  particular  care,  the  translation  is  given  literally  word  for  word, 
and  the  grammatical  explanation  of  all  difficulties  is  entirely  suf- 
ficient. With  the  help  of  the  translation  the  pupil  reads  the  first 
chapters  with  complete  understanding,  and  his  interest  in  what  fol- 
lows is  aroused.  At  the  same  time  he  learns  a  large  number  of  words 
and  has  his  attention  called  to  the  differences  between  the  foreign 


METHODS  OF  LANGUAGE  TEACHING  9 

language  and  his  mother  tongue.  Opportunity  is  given  him  in  the 
same  "  letter  "  to  become  acquainted  with  different  classes  of  impoi- 
tant  Realien  characteristic  of  the  foreign  nation's  culture,  and  to 
answer  questions  and  translate  sentences  to  which  the  next  "  letter  " 
will  supply  him  with  the  key,  —  that  he  himself  may  correct  his  written 
exercises  :  "  Every  one  his  own  teacher  !  "  Thousands  have  attempted 
to  learn  modern  foreign  languages  by  the  Toussaint-Langenscheidt 
method,  and  have  really  succeeded  to  a  certain  degree,  so  far  as  a 
foreign  language  may  be  learned  without  the  assistance  of  an  actual 
teacher.  In  order  to  supply  the  place  of  this  teacher  who  would  pro- 
nounce the  foreign  sounds  correctly  and  untiringly,  the  publishers 
invented  and  continually  worked  for  the  perfection  of  a  phonetic 
alphabet  which  was  to  reproduce  the  foreign  sounds  as  exactly  as 
possible.  They  have  rendered  great  services  in  this  domain,  and  their 
enlightened  efforts  in  French,  English,  and  German  lexicography  con- 
stitute a  page  of  honor  in  the  history  of  the  attempt  to  spread  abroad  a 
knowledge  of  these  languages,  especially  as  regards  their  vocabulary, 

Johann  Franz  Ahn,  born  in  Aachen  in  the  year  1790,  first  merchant, 
then  surveyor,  and  finally  teacher  and  school  director  until  his  death 
in  1865,  had  in  mind  the  essentially  practical  results  of  instruction. 
The  German  public  school  system  finds  in  him  a  sturdy  forerunner. 
The  main  purpose  of  Ahn,  as  of  his  colleague  Seidenstiicker,^  was 
to  prepare  young  people  for  mercantile  life  and  to  equip  them  with 
that  mastery  of  modern  languages  which  was  deemed  necessary  for 
this  end. 

In  their  text-books  they  gave  the  student  at  first  only  easy,  every- 
day words  and  the  simplest  complete  sentences  discoverable ;  they 
warned  against  beginning  grammar  oversoon,  strove  early  in  the 
course  for  a  certain  practice  in  conversation,  and  stated  emphatically 
that  the  aim  to  be  continually  kept  in  view  was  the  ability  to  express 
one's  self  by  spoken  and  written  word  in  the  foreign  language.  The 
elaboration  and  execution  of  their  method  fell,  to  be  sure,  far  short 
of  the  claims  they  made  for  it.  The  difficulties  which  beset  the  ele- 
mentary student  were  simply  evaded,  and  in  final  analysis  their  plan 
resulted  in  merely  continual  translating. 

1  Johann  Heinrich  Philipp  Seidenstucker,  born  in  Thiiringen  (1765),  died  in 
Soest  (18 1 7).  He  was  primarily  a  skillful  pedagogue,  a  fact  which  accounts  for 
his  belief  that  many  an  explanation  could  be  left  in  the  hands  of  the  teacher.  In 
the  first  editions  of  Ahn-SeidenstUcker's  text-books  there  are,  for  example,  no 
rules  of  pronunciation. 


10  THE  TEACHING  OF  MODERN  LANGUAGES 

The  first  to  group  sentences  systematically  for  the  purpose  of 
practice  in  definite  grammatical  forms  and  rules,  to  apportion  to  each 
lesson  its  well-defined  task,  and  to  offer  in  addition  conversational 
models,  was  the  still  popular  Ollendorff.  He  was  the  teacher  of  our 
grandparents,  as  Plotz  was  of  our  parents  and  to  some  extent  of 
ourselves. 

The  quality  of  Ollendorff's  sentences,  models  of  conversation,  and 
"questions,"  could  be  illustrated  by  many  an  amusing  collection  of 
unconscious  imbecility.  To  the  most  stupid,  disconnected,  and  motley 
questions  are  given  answers  prescribed  to  the  letter  which  are  to 
be  read,  translated,  and  memorized.  Ollendorff  had  great  confidence 
in  the  use  of  his  text-book  :  "  In  six  months,"  he  asserts,  "one  may 
learn  to  read,  write,  and  speak  a  foreign  language  "  ( ! ).  What  in 
reality,  however,  a  docile  pupil  might  learn  from  him,  under  the  most 
favorable  conditions,  would  be  a  few  hundred  sterile  expressions 
which  would  weigh  upon  the  memory  as  unnecessary  ballast  and  could 
never  be  regarded  as  actual  profit. 

More  elegant  and  intelligent  models  of  conversation  are  offered  in 
the  Gaspey-Otto  text-books,  by  means  of  which  even  to-day  many 
Americans,  Englishmen,  and  Frenchmen  are  learning  their  German. 
But  what  a  pity  it  is  that  the  foreigner  does  not  always  oblige  us  by 
formulating  his  questions  and  shaping  his  conversation  according  to 
the  norm  which  Gaspey  and  Otto  choose  as  their  standard  !  In  com- 
mon Avith  their  predecessors,  they  expect  great  grammatical  profit  to 
accrue  from  the  study  of  themes  and  translations. 

Meanwhile  we  have  come  in  our  historical  journeying  through  the 
domain  of  language  teaching  to  the  time  when  Plotz  was  undisputed 
monarch  of  French  instruction  in  German  schools.  Karl  Plotz,  the 
much-praised,  the  much-maligned,  was  a  man  whose  mere  name  is 
sufficient  to  indicate  a  well-defined  and  complete  policy.  To  many 
enthusiastic  schoolmen  he  was  the  standard-bearer  about  whom  they 
gathered  with  tenacious  endurance  in  the  stubborn  fight,  to  many  an 
impetuous  reformer  he  was  the  target  of  most  violent  attacks ;  but  it 
may  be  said  that  Karl  Plotz  was  himself  almost  as  complete  master 
of  the  foreign  language  which  he  sought  to  teach  others,  as  of  his 
mother  tongue,  —  a  fact  that  should  never  be  forgotten  in  a  criticism 
of  this  tireless  worker.  He  had  studied  French  where  it  is  spoken 
best,  in  Paris ;  hence  he  kept  his  text-books  free  from  barbarisms, 
laying  especial  emphasis  upon  Parisian  French,  with  the  occasional 
introduction   of  special,   elegant  phrases.     He  omitted  matters  of 


METHODS  OF  LANGUAGE  TEACHING  n 

secondary  importance,  and  gave  his  rules  a  concise  form ;  he  strove 
for  clearness,  and  made  the  material  so  palatable  to  the  teacher  that 
every  one  could  give  instruction  according  to  his  books. 

Plotz's  volumes  appeared  in  numerous  editions,  revised  again  and 
again  to  suit  the  most  varied  demands  and  needs,  but  their  author 
saw  an  ever-increasing  antagonism  rising  up  against  his  work. 

This  opposition  we  may  regard  to-day  as  perfectly  justified,  if  we 
revert  to  the  earlier  editions  of  twenty-five  years  ago,  when  the  books 
were  in  almost  universal  use  in  German  schools.  They  were  divided 
into  lessons,  generally  not  too  extensive  for  a  single  period  of  instruc- 
tion. At  the  beginning  of  each  lesson  stood  the  vocabulary,  then 
came  the  rules,  to  which  were  added  individual  sentences  both  in  the 
mother  tongue  and  in  the  foreign  language,  with  no  connection  and  of 
motley  content.  These  sentences  were  intended  to  put  the  vocabu- 
lary and  rules  just  given  to  the  fullest  possible  use.  A  few  exam- 
ples may  well  be  quoted:  Le  mur  est  noir.  Le  Men  du  frere  est  beau. 
Le  jardin  du  pere  est  grand.  Le  frere  et  le  pere  out  le  ton  pain.  Le 
prhent  du  pere  est  beau.  Le  lion  est  clhnent,  il  est  beau.  Le  cheval  du 
rot  est  noir.  J^ai  re(u  un  beau  prese?it.  —  The  garden  is  beautiful.  The 
king  has  a  black  horse.  The  wall  is  black.  L  have  a  bread.  Thou  hast 
a  book  and  a  dog.  The  brother  has  got  a  beautiful  gift.  The  horse 
of  the  father  zvas  kind. 

Later  the  feminines  were  introduced,  together  with  the  imperfect 
of  avoir,  etc.,  always  accompanied  by  a  number  of  sentences  of  the 
above  quality.  As  the  first  words  were  to  give  as  complete  a  picture 
of  French  pronunciation  as  possible,  Plotz  even  in  his  first  pages 
required  of  the  children  such  words  as  la  girouettc,  which  would 
appear  sporadically  in  sentences  expressly  manufactured  for  the  pur- 
pose and  then  naturally  be  quickly  forgotten.  From  my  own  school 
days  I  can  remember  how  we  used  to  long  for  the  hour  to  come  when 
the  modest  beginnings  of  a  practical  application  of  the  living  language 
should  finally  be  made.  Vain  hope  !  Plotz's  text-books  offered  the 
teacher  no  opportunity  for  such  exercise.  From  time  to  time,  it  is 
true,  questionaries  were  inserted,  which  we  greeted  as  the  green 
oases  of  this  barren  waste  of  insipid  sentence-translating,  and  yet 
these  scant  colloquies  were  of  no  real  service  for  a  first-hand  train- 
ing in  free  conversation.  It  was  merely  self-deception  for  us  to 
regard  it  as  the  commencement  of  ability  to  speak  when  in  answer 
to  the  printed  questions  Qui  a  invente  Vimprimeriel  Qui  a  decou- 
vert  V Anterique  ?    Qui  a   invente  le  paratojinerre  ?  we  replaced  the 


12  THE  TEACHING   OF  MODERN   LANGUAGES 

interrogative  pronoun  with  the  names  Giitcnbcyg,  Christophe  Colotnb, 
and  Franklin.  Committing  words  to  memory,  translating  sentences, 
driUing  in  irregular  verbs,  later  memorizing,  repeating,  and  applying 
grammatical  rules  with  their  exceptions,  —  that  was  and  eternally 
remained  our  main  occupation  ;  for  not  until  the  last  years  of  the 
higher  schools  with  the  nine-year  curriculum  did  French  reading 
come  to  anything  like  prominence,  and  that  was  the  time  when  free 
compositions  in  the  foreign  language  w^ere  to  be  written  ! 

What  a  senseless  demand  to  make  of  pupils  who  up  to  that  time 
had  always  been  tied  to  the  apron-strings  of  translation  !  Instinctively 
we  felt  that  the  everlasting  rendition  of  foolish  sentences  had  not  quali- 
fied us  for  independent  expression  in  the  foreign  tongue  ;  that  we  had 
not  learned  to  think  in  this  language.  Always  accustomed  to  translate 
sentences  out  of  the  mother  tongue,  we  wrote  our  essays  first  in  Ger- 
man and  then  made  them  over  into  more  or  less  horrible  French. 
What  profited  the  admonition  of  the  teacher:  write  simply  and  unpre- 
tendingly, write  as  if  you  were  telling  somebody  a  story  in  French  — 
write  as  you  speak  !  But  we  had  never  learned  to  speak  French. 
Sprachgefiihl,  so  indispensable  for  an  untrammeled  expression  in  the 
foreign  language,  had  not  been  developed  within  us,  and  because  of 
the  arrangement  of  Plotz's  text-books  with  their  confused  mass  of 
translation-exercises  and  grammatical  rules  any  possible  feeling  for 
the  foreign  language  had  been  systematically  killed.  Instead  of 
expressing  ourselves  boldly  and  with  pleasure  we  lived  in  continual 
fear  of  mistakes,  and  whenever  we  came  to  a  situation  where  we  were 
obliged  to  write  a  letter  or  speak  in  the  foreign  language,  there  arose 
threateningly  before  our  minds  a  veritable  forest  of  paragraphs,  an 
impenetrable  thicket  of  grammatical  rules ;  ever  and  again  the 
anxious  question  confronted  us,  impeding  our  progress.  In  which 
lesson  of  Plotz  did  we  learn  this  or  that .-' 

As  a  result  of  such  study  the  achievements  of  young  clerks  who 
were  intrusted  with  the  foreign  correspondence  of  mercantile  offices 
were  unsatisfactory.  And  those  of  us  w'ho  afterwards  visited  France 
stood  helpless  and  confused  when  confronted  by  linguistic  difficulties, 
knowing  in  answer  to  the  question  Est-ce  que  vous  parlez  fra?ifais  ? 
barely  enough  to  stammer  a  nervous  7i?i  peu,  and  to  beseech  the 
vivacious  Frenchman  who  talked  to  us,  Parlez  le?itefnent,  s'il  vous 
plait!  How  could  we  have  been  able  to  understand  him?  He  did 
not  speak  in  the  verses  of  Corneille,  nor  in  the  prose  of  Voltaire's 
Charles  XII. 


METHODS  OF   LANGUAGE  TEACHING  13 

Still,  Ollendorff  and  Plotz  were  not  alone  to  blame  for  this  negative 
result.  The  choice  of  our  reading,  with  its  one-sided  emphasis  on 
the  classical,  had  been  not  less  ill-advised  than  that  of  our  text-books. 
As  we  had  never  read  nor  heard  in  school  colloquial  French  or  the 
French  of  every-day  life,  when  in  the  streets  of  Paris  we  could  not 
even  ask  which  way  to  turn.  And  as  text-books  such  as  we  have 
above  characterized,  in'  their  pedantic  plan,  administered  the  material 
for  teacher  and  pupil  alike  in  well-prepared  doses,  they  naturally 
promoted  the  existence  of  inferior  teachers,  because,  forsooth,  "  any 
one  could  teach  "  according  to  Plotz.  To-day,  however,  it  is  right- 
fully demanded  of  each  instructor  in  a  modern  foreign  language 
that  he  shall  have  been  in  the  foreign  country  with  whose  medium 
of  speech  he  is  dealing,  and  that  he  shall  be  at  least  master  of  every- 
day conversation.  Upon  his  ability  as  a  teacher,  as  well  as  upon  his 
knowledge,  present-day  text-books  and  methods  undoubtedly  make 
higher  demands.  But  in  fairness  it  should  not  remain  unmentioned 
that  Plotz's  method  too  has  been  much  improved  and  his  text-books 
thoroughly  revised,  especially  by  Karess  and  Gustav  Plotz. 

In  Germany  official  regulations,  not  having  advanced  with  the  need 
of  the  times,  often  favored  by  their  dogmatic  orders  and  prohibitions 
the  old  system  of  language  teaching  as  we  have  above  described  it. 
In  one  of  these  regulations  is  to  be  found  the  arbitrary  statement, 
"To  produce  fluency  in  conversation  can  not  be  the  mission  of  the 
school."  And  a  philosopher,  Eduard  von  Hartmann,  much  in  vogue 
in  certain  circles  during  the  seventies,  wrote  in  his  book  Zur  Reform 
des  hoheren  ScJudwesens :  "  On  account  of  the  number  of  pupils  in 
our  classes,  learning  to  speak  foreign  tongues  is  impossible,  or  it  is 
only  to  be  attained  by  neglecting  other  higher  courses  of  education. 
The  most  that  can  possibly  be  demanded  in  the  way  of  ability  to 
speak  is  an  analysis  of  passages  read  and"  —  oh,  the  wisdom  of 
these  words  !  —  "  the  reproduction  of  grammatical  rules."  It  is  also 
interesting  to  read  Hartmann's  preposterous  assertion  that  English 
can  lay  no  claim  to  general  educational  value  and  therefore  should 
be  eliminated  from  the  curriculum  of  German  schools.  Instead  of 
English  the  "  Philosopher  of  the  Unconscious  "  strongly  advocates 
a  more  intense  study  of  French,  emphasizes  ever  and  again  the  great 
importance  of  French  composition,  but  has  no  word  of  condem- 
nation for  those  antiquated  methods  which  never  lead  to  free  idio- 
matic expression  and  to  thinking  in  the  foreign  language;  two  things 
essential  in  any  theme  which  pretends  to  purity  of  style. 


14  THE  TEACHING  OF  MODERN   LANGUAGES 

A  verv  original  course  whicli  led  in  a  surprisingly  short  time  to 
the  acquisition  of  almost  a  dozen  foreign  languages  was  pursued  by 
Heinrich  Schliemann,  the  hero  of  the  Trojan  excavations,  a  highly 
gifted,  self-made  man  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  and  one  who 
never  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  regular  school  instruction.  In  his 
autobiography  he  tells  us  how  he  learned  English.  "My  simple 
method  consisted  in  the  first  place  of  reading  aloud  a  great  deal,  of 
making  no  translations,  of  continually  writing  compositions  on  sub- 
jects of  interest,  of  correcting  these  under  the  guidance  of  the 
teacher,  memorizing  them,  and  repeating  at  the  next  lesson  what 
had  been  corrected  in  the  previous  one.  In  order  to  acquire  as 
soon  as  possible  a  good  pronunciation,  I  attended  services  in  the 
English  Church  regularly  twice  every  Sunday,  and  repeated  softly 
after  the  minister  each  word  of  the  sermon.  On  all  my  trips  as 
errand-boy  (Schliemann  then  held  a  subordinate  position  in  an 
Amsterdam  mercantile  house)  I  carried  in  my  hand  a  book  out  of 
which  I  would  learn  something  word  for  word.  In  this  way  I 
strengthened  my  memory,  and  in  three  months  could  recite  daily 
twenty  printed  pages  of  English  prose  to  my  two  teachers.  Thus  I 
knew  by  heart  the  Vicar  of  Wakefield  and  Ivanhoe.  As  the  memory 
is  capable  of  much  greater  concentration  by  night  than  by  day,  I 
found  nocturnal  repetition  of  the  greatest  advantage." 

In  such  a  way,  Schliemann  assures  us  (but  I  must  confess  that  I 
can  not  read  his  account  without  a  frequent  shaking  of  the  head),  he 
acquired  in  half  a  year  a  thorough  knowledge  of  English.  And  in 
another  six  months  he  claims  to  have  mastered  the  French  language  by 
memorizing  Fe'nelon's  Telemaque  and  Saint-Pierre's  Paul  et  Virginie. 
He  studied  modern  Greek  through  the  medium  of  a  modern  Greek 
translation  of  the  latter  story,  and  from  this  proceeded  to  ancient 
Greek,  where  he  naturally  took  up  the  classics.  But  to  continue  in 
his  own  words  :  "  I  lost  not  a  moment  of  my  precious  time  in  the 
study  of  grammatical  rules.  For  when  I  saw  that  no  one  of  all  the 
boys  who  are  tormented  for  years  in  the  Gymnasien  with  grammatical 
rules  was  afterwards  able  to  write  fluently  in  the  Greek  language  with- 
out making  the  most  clumsy  errors,  I  had  to  assume  that  the  method 
pursued  in  the  schools  was  false.  To  my  mind  one  can  acquire  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  grammar  only  by  practice,  —  i.e.  through 
the  attentive  reading  aloud  of  good  prose  and  the  memorizing  of 
model  pieces."  It  may  appear  strange  that  the  highly  talented  man 
should  use  in  his  energetic  self-instruction  some  of  the  antiquated 


METHODS  OF  LANGUAGE  TEACHING  15 

authors  who  had  already  played  a  role  in  the  Jacotot  method.  Schlie- 
mann  maintained  that  he  was  thoroughly  familiar  with  all  the  gram- 
matical rules  of  those  languages  which  he  had  hurried  through  at 
such  a  tremendous  pace,  "  And  if  it  happens,"  he  continues,  "  that- 
somebody  claims  to  have  discovered  errors  in  my  writings,  I  can 
offer  every  time,  as  an  infallible  proof  of  the  correctness  of  my  form 
of  expression,  citations  from  standard  authors  in  which  those  very 
phrases  which  I  used  appear." 

We  have  here  then  the  picture  of  an  imitative  method  which  may 
prove  satisfactory  in  the  case  of  so  highly  gifted  a  nature  as  that  of 
Heinrich  Schliemann,  especially  when  it  is  accompanied  by  such 
unflagging  industry  and  such  a  phenomenal  memory;  but  before 
this  method  could  be  applied  to  teaching  in  general  it  would  need 
thorough-going  modification.  Nevertheless  a  Leipzig  publisher,  Paul 
Spindler,  found  sturdy  schoolmen  who  adopted  Schliemann's  ideas, 
and  (with  certain  changes)  made  practical  application  of  them  in 
text-books,  —  Emil  Penner  in  Berlin  and  Albert  Harnisch  in  Cassel. 
Let  us  listen  to  the  enunciation  of  their  pedagogical  principles : 
"The  pupil  wishes  to  speak  the  foreign  language.  Now  when  we 
speak  we  reproduce  involuntarily  from  memory  phrases  that  we 
have  heard  before,  as  is  sufficiently  shown  by  the  early  utterances 
of  the  child.  Whenever  the  adult  speaks,  his  expression  is  uncon- 
sciously based  upon  models  and  paradigms  which  are  present  in  his 
memory,  having  been  stored  up  at  some  former  time.  Give  the  stu- 
dent of  a  foreign  language,  then,  a  text  to  be  gradually  memorized, 
one  that  is  not  difficult,  not  antiquated,  and" — a  thing  that  seems 
to  me  a  happy  innovation  — "  one  prepared  for  this  special  peda- 
gogical purpose,  but  withal  a  connected,  continuous  narrative.  The 
pupil  will  assimilate  not  merely  the  words  but  also  the  numerous 
grammatical  forms,  phrases,  and  whole  sentence-constructions,  —  and 
all  these  in  such  a  way  that  they  can  be  employed  again  by  him  in 
mnemonic  reproduction  without  the  necessity  of  previously  comparing 
their  significations  in  the  mother  tongue.  Only  by  such  reminiscent 
reproduction  is  ability  to  think  in  the  foreign  tongue  attainable." 

The  starting-point,  then,  is  the  language  itself  in  its  most  finished 
form,  and  the  grammatical  laws,  in  so  far  as  it  is  really  necessary  to 
comprehend  them,  are  explained  only  by  way  of  supplement. 

Schliemann's  method  rejects  all  practice  in  translation  as  purpose- 
less and  not  conducive  to  an  independent  use  of  the  language  ; 
demands  in  its  stead,  however,  oral  and  written  reproduction  of  the 


l6  THE  TEACHING   OF  MODERN   LANGUAGES 

memorized  text  and  independent  utterance  in  the  foreign  language, 
with  the  help  of  thus  acquired  word-forms  and  sentence-construc- 
tions. In  the  texts  which  form  the  basis  of  such  language  teaching 
the  editors  of  the  Schliemann  text-books  offer  material  prepared 
according  to  pedagogical  principles:  a  story  which  introduces  the 
pupil  pleasantly  and  clearly  to  the  affairs  of  the  foreign  nation,  and 
thus  not  only  furnishes  him  with  the  vocabulary  of  every-day  life, 
but  also  arouses  and  excites  his  interest  in  the  country  and  people 
about  whom  he  is  reading.  New  factors  are  thereby  brought  into  the 
service  of  language  teaching  in  original  and  attractive  fashion. 

The  men  whom  we  now  look  upon  in  Germany  as  the  real  fathers 
of  a  great  reform  in  modern  language  teaching  made  their  first 
appearance  as  accusers.  They  wished  to  be  heard  far  and  wide, 
and  hence  used  vigorous  language ;  for  nothing  so  attracts  attention, 
so  stirs  all  hearts,  as  the  cry  /'accuse.  The  reform  writers  of  the 
seventies  and  eighties  placed  three  accusations  in  the  front  rank. 
They  cried  out  to  the  advocates  of  the  earlier  methods,  to  the  teachers 
of  the  modern  languages,  "  You  are  overloading  and  overburdening 
the  poor  school-children.  And  in  spite  of  this  you  are  attaining  only 
unsatisfactory  results  with  regard  to  pronunciation  and  with  regard 
to  the  practical  mastery  of  the  written  and  spoken  language.  You 
are  neglecting  the  Realien  and  are  not  placing  a  complete  picture  of 
modern  culture  before  the  minds  of  your  pupils." 

And  who  was  the  herald  of  this  great  movement  in  Germany  .-• 
Strangely  enough,  a  representative  of  the  ancient  languages  — 
Hermann  Perthes.  He  published  in  1875  his  important  Z«r i?*;^"^^;^ 
des  lateinischen  Ufiterrichts  auf  Gynmasien  und  Realschukn,  and  here 
he  proclaimed  to  the  language  teachers  of  the  old  school:  "You  do 
not  sufficiently  take  into  consideration  the  nature  of  the  child ;  you 
do  not  know  how  to  build  up  your  teaching  upon  a  psychological 
basis,  to  arouse  due  interest  in  the  content  of  the  reading  material, 
to  advance  it  to  the  place  where  it  belongs,  to  make  it  the  central 
point  of  all  teaching.  You  have  not  regarded  properly  the  power  of 
imitation,  so  strong  in  youth ;  you  have  not  offered  a  living  con- 
ception of  things ;  and,  instead  of  leading  your  pupils  by  analytical 
pathways  to  unconscious,  easy  acquisition,  you  have  incurred  the 
responsibility  for  the  complaints  of  overwork  which  have  become  so 
general  in  the  schools." 

And  just  as  Hermann  Perthes  indicated  the  inability  of  the  pupils 
to  fulfill  the  requirements   under  the  old  regime,  Klotzsch  in  two 


METHODS  OF  LANGUAGE  TEACHING  17 

publications  of  the  following  year  subjected  the  results  of  French 
instruction  to  a  no  less  candid  criticism.  His  demand  —  first  the 
thing  (language),  then  the  abstraction  (rules) — reappears  in  its 
essentials  in  all  later  writings  of  the  reformers,  and  can  be  held  as 
one  of  the  main  principles  accepted  to-day  by  the  overwhelming 
majority  of  modern-language  teachers. 

In  1878  Count  Pfeil,  old  in  years  but  in  the  opinion  of  many  still 
a  man  of  storm  and  stress,  sought  to  demonstrate  the  entire  super- 
fluousness  of  grammar  and  to  eliminate  all  translation  into  the  foreign 
language  as  pernicious  nonsense.  I  am  speaking  of  his  article  in 
the  twentieth  volume  of  the  Fadagogisches  Archiv,  but  would  also  call 
attention  to  his  later  pamphlets  :  that  of  1879  ^^^^  ^^^  strange  title 
Bins !  that  of  1882  with  the  alarming  heading  Unser  Schidwesen  ist 
krank  !  and  that  of  1883  with  the  legend  full  of  promise,  Wie  lernt 
man  eine  Sprache  ? 

A  telling  effect  was  produced  in  1878  by  the  timely  and  really 
excellent  remarks  of  Moritz  Trautmann,  published  in  the  first  volume 
of  Angiia,  relating  especially  to  the  description  and  definition  of 
sounds.  To  him  is  due  the  great  merit  of  being  the  first  to  advocate 
the  phonetic  side  of  the  reform  for  actual  school  instruction.  Traut- 
mann opened  the  eyes  and  ears  of  many  modern-language  teachers, 
and  convinced  them  of  the  great  importance  of  phonetics  in  teaching. 
To  him  also  we  owe  the  full-toned  and  energetic  cry  of  accusation 
that  has  often  sounded  through  the  literature  of  the  modern-language 
reform  movement :  "  The  pronunciation  of  the  modern  languages  as 
taught  in  the  schools  is  appalling  !  " 

In  1880  there  appeared  at  Trautmann's  side  an  almost  unknown 
teacher  in  Wiesbaden,  but  one  who  has  since  won  for  himself  the 
leadership  in  this  war  of  reform.  Dr.  Wilhelm  Victor,  now  profes- 
sor at  the  University  of  Marburg,  and  most  favorably  known 
through  his  epoch-making  writings  on  sound-physiology  and  meth- 
ods. In  1880  he  published  in  the  second  volume  of  the  Zeitschrift 
fiir  franzosische  Sprache  the  characteristic  features  of  his  position 
on  the  question  "  whether  to  teach  written  language,  or  language." 
There  he  emphasized  the  necessity  of  starting  from  the  sound  — 
made  the  demand  that  the  teaching  of  accidence  be  based  upon 
it.  He  taught  the  functions  of  the  organs  of  speech  ;  he  referred 
to  the  formation  of  the  sounds  of  speech  and  to  a  simplification 
of  the  existing  orthography  into  one  more  adapted  to  the  real 
pronunciation. 


l8  THE  TEACHING  OF   MODERN   LANGUAGES 

Two  years  later  Victor  followed  this  by  his  then  anonymous 
pamphlet  Der  Sprachunicrricht  miifi  nmkchren !  FAn  Beitrag  zur 
Ubfrbiirihittgsfrage  von  Quousque  Tandem.  (The  Teaching  of  Lan- 
guages Must  Start  Afresh:  a  Contribution  to  the  Subject  of  Over- 
burdening of  Pupils,  by  Quousque  Tandem.)  ' 

Seldom  has  a  bulky  folio  made  so  great  a  sensation,  produced  so 
large  a  literature  of  praise  and  bitter  attack,  as  this  small  pamphlet  con- 
sisting of  scarcely  two  score  pages.  "  Victor's  book,"  said  Geheimrat 
Munch,  "  acted  like  a  trumpet-blast,  excellent  for  the  awakening  of 
sleepers."  And  Dean  Russell,  in  his  scholarly  work  German  Higher 
Schools,  rightly  calls  it  "  a  veritable  thunderbolt  "  ! 

In  this,  the  most  widely  read  and  most  famous  of  all  the  writ- 
ings of  the  reform  movement,  Victor  made  the  perverted  method 
of  language  teaching  directly  responsible  for  the  overburdening  of 
the  school  children.  He  referred  in  bold  and  vigorous  words  to  the 
criminal  neglect  of  phonology,  to  the  routine  and  pedantry  of  the 
text-books,  to  the  disregard  of  thought-content,  to  the  lifelessness 
of  existing  language  teaching,  and  to  the  unsympathetic  juxtaposition 
of  languages  in  the  school  curriculum.  He  longed  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  rules  and  disjointed  sentences,  and  declared  translating  into 
foreign  languages  to  be  an  art  that  had  nothing  in  common  with  the 
school. 

1  Heilbronn,  Gebriider  Henninger,  1882.    Several  editions  have  since  appeared. 


II.  THE  REFORM  OF  MODERN-LANGUAGE 
TEACHING  IN   GERMANY 

It  is  desirable  to  give  as  accurate  an  analysis  as  possible  of 
the  contents  of  Vietor's  pamphlet  which  exercised  so  material  an 
influence  'Opon  the  reorganization  of  modern-foreign-language  teach- 
ing in  Germany,  especially  as  an  English  translation,  I  am  sorry  to 
say,  has  not  appeared. 

Victor  takes  us  first  of  all  to  a  class-room  where  the  instruction 
is  being  conducted  according  to  the  traditional  method,  in  order  to 
indicate  how  perverted  a  course  the  teachers  are  pursuing. 

If  the  pupil  should  be  asked,  "  Of  what  does  a  word  consist } " 
we  could  be  certain  of  hearing  the  answer,  "  Of  letters."  A  word  is 
pronounced:  e.g.  fdjraarj.  The  pupil  in  question  will  hold  fast  to 
his  opinion  and  enumerate  the  letters  f,  c,  i),  m,  a,  x,  g.  He  has  no 
idea  that  his  answer  merely  coincides  with  a  quite  accidental  orthog- 
raphy. We  ask  him  further  for  the  sounds  of  which  the  chosen  word 
is  composed.  We  receive  the  same  answer:  j,  c,  f),  it),  a,  v,  g,  and 
the  child  looks  at  us  in  amazement  for  putting  such  superfluous 
questions.  That  f,  c,  t),  are  three  signs  for  a  single  sound,  but  that 
J  is  a  single  sign  for  two  sounds  (the  t  and  f  sounds),  —  of  all  this  you 
may  be  sure  the  pupils  have  never  heard,  for  the  fatal  confusion  of 
written  and  spoken  language  is  implanted  in  the  child  with  the  primer. 
Alas  for  him  who  does  not  know  that  a,  e,  i,  o,  it,  \),  are  vowels,  and 
the  remaining  letters  or  "sounds"  of  the  alphabet  consonants! 
But  ask  the  pupil  or  even  the  teacher  for  the  cause  of  this  classifi- 
cation !  "  The  consonants  cannot  be  pronounced  by  themselves," 
answers  the  teacher  [what  occurs  then  when  we  s/i(7o  the  chickens 
with  a  s/i?^,  "only  the  vowels  can  form  syllables,"  he  continues  [but 
nevertheless  the  child  learns  33 [t !  lucr  fommt  ba  ftid  iinb  ftumm?]  — 
in  short,  we  must  listen  to  a  system  of  phonetics  which  is  unutterably 
nonsensical. 

Another  teacher,  especially  if  he  be  strenuous  and  pedantic,  will 
demand  that  the  child  distinguish  in  pronunciation  between  ai  and 
ei,  e.g.  ©aite  (string,  of  a  violin),  ©cite  (page,  of  a  book),  although 

19 


20  THE  TEACHING   OF   MODERN   LANGUAGES 

this  distinction  was  lost  to  German  five  centuries  ago.  A  third 
teacher  regards  it  as  indispensable  that  soft  h,  b,  %,  be  spoken  at  the 
end  of  syllables  and  words  (for  what  "  final  position  "  is,  the  pupils 
never  even  get  the  opportunity  of  learning);  hence,  ©rab,  gcfunb, 
33ctrui3,  instead  of  @rap,  gcfunt,  33ctru{  or  ^-Sctrud).  Victor  calls  this 
last  a  direct  falsification  of  the  German  language,  which  recognizes 
to  the  present  day  in  such  words  only  unvoiced  explosive  and  fricative 
sounds  in  final  position.  The  fp,  ft,  of  the  Hanoverian  appeal  par- 
ticularly to  a  fourth  teacher,  perhaps  on  musical  grounds,  and  he 
accordingly  foists  upon  his  pupils  this  Low  German  pronunciation, 
which  even  in  the  times  of  Luther  was  nothing  but  a  provincialism. 
For  in  Luther's  German  appear  jdf)te^en,  fdjto^en,  fd^pringen,  which 
were  retained  in  the  standard  pronunciation  of  High  German. 

After  the  letters  have  been  illumined  with  such  tender  care  and 
the  alphabet  is  duly  practiced,  school  grammar  proper  begins  with 
the  parts  of  speech  :  with  their  names,  that  is,  but  without  objective 
explanation  or  logical  foundation.  Later,  in  the  treatment  of  syntax 
much  the  same  course  is  pursued  with  subject,  predicate,  object,  and 
attribute.  And  whence  come  the  multitudinous  mistakes  ?  Because 
a  name  has  been  given  the  child  before  a  full  and  complete  compre- 
hension of  the  sentence-content  exists  in  his  mind  ;  the  technical 
nomenclature  of  an  object  has  been  demanded  before  the  definite 
concept  of  it  and  its  real  significance  have  been  induced. 

"And,"  Victor  continues,  "just  as  syllables  and  groups  of  syllables 
should  consist  for  teacher  or  pupil  not  of  letters  but  of  sounds,  so 
language  itself  is  composed  of  sentences,  and  never  of  individual 
words  except  for  the  purposes  of  the  lexicographer."  We  can  not 
learn  to  speak  a  language  by  memorizing  long  lists  of  disconnected 
words.  If  all  the  rules  of  grammar  were  added  to  such  an  exact 
knowledge  of  isolated  vocables,  we  should  be  thereby  no  nearer 
our  goal. 

At  the  commencement  of  modern-language  instruction  the  teacher 
should  first  of  all  make  clear  to  the  pupil  the  formation  and  nature 
of  sounds  ;  should  inform  him  what  a  close  or  open  vowel  is,  what 
the  distinction  is  between  simple  sounds  and  diphthongs,  between 
voiced  or  sonant  and  unvoiced  or  surd  sounds. 

Victor  demands  that  stress  be  laid  at  the  end  of  the  first  year  not 
upon  the  orthographical  uncertainty  of  the  pupil  but  upon  his  faults 
of  pronunciation.  He  then  proceeds  to  deal  with  many  a  blun- 
der  made  by  teachers   of  French  and  English   in  Germany :  their 


REFORM  OF  MODERN-LANGUAGE  TEACHING  21 

mistaken  zeal  in  the  matter  of  declensions,  although  there  are  no 
real  declensions  in  either  of  these  two  languages ;  and  instances 
likewise  the  nonsensical  rules  of  gender  insisted  upon  by  teachers 
of  Latin.  He  asks  that  instead  of  memorizing  rules  and  exceptions 
of  syntax,  the  student  should  be  taught  to  seek  a  complete  under- 
standing of  the  basic  principle  involved.  It  is  not  so  important 
that  the  pupil  be  able  to  recite  the  lists  of  French  verbs  which 
govern  the  subjunctive,  as  that  he  know  the  essence  of  the  sub- 
junctive to  be  uncertainty,  doubt,  unreality,  in  contrast  to  certainty, 
surety,  reality;  from  this  principle  any  application  of  the  use  of  the 
mode  is  to  be  explained. 

In  the  second  part  of  his  pamphlet  Vietor  describes  with  caustic 
irony  the  customary  method  of  class  instruction  which  assigns  the 
task  of  memorizing  words  and  the  so-called  drill  in  rules.  Of  the  latter 
performance  he  says  correctly  :  "  What  the  pupil  might  have  sought 
and  found  in  his  own  strength  and  by  independent  reflection  is  pre- 
sented to  him  upon  a  salver.  Never  can  he  cry  in  triumph,  '  I  have 
found  it,'  for  he  has  never  learned  to  seek.  Hence  the  printed  rule 
has  no  interest  for  him."  In  other  words,  our  author  desires  that  the 
pupil  collect  some  of  his  grammar  for  himself,  after  the  material  has 
been  laid  before  him  in  suitable  form. 

Vietor  attacks  vigorously  the  disconnected  sentences  which  are 
put  before  the  pupil  for  purposes  of  translation.  "One  would  think 
they  had  been  gathered  in  jest  or  as  holiday  merriment."  The 
old-fashioned  exercises  dealing  with  domestic  affairs  he  calls  a 
veritable  breeding-place  of  mistakes,  a  national  scourge  for  teacher 
and  pupil  alike,  a  double  and  treble  sin  against  the  young.  And  how 
shall  reading  be  conducted,  and  how  not?  The  gist,  the  thought- 
content,  should  carry  the  main  stress,  and  yet  many  teachers  treat 
reading  as  if  it  were  merely  a  kind  of  running  commentary  to  the 
grammar.  The  scraps  of  literary  knowledge  which  the  pupils  thus 
eventually  acquire  in  the  slow  course  of  reading  where  everything 
is  analyzed  according  to  grammatical  rule  would  have  been  easier 
to  attain  had  printed  translations  of  the  foreign  authors  been  put 
in  their  hands. 

Vietor  advises  too  that  pupils  be  made  conversant  with  the  episto- 
lary style  of  the  foreign  language  which  they  are  learning,  and  calls 
for  instruction  regarding  the  country,  its  peculiarities,  its  history.  He 
declares  it  to  be  no  unworthy  aim  to  fit  the  pupil  so  that  he  may  ask 
and  find  his  way  about  in  the  foreign  capital. 


22  THE  TEACHING   OF   MODERN   LANGUAGES 

He  wishes  the  modern  cultural  languages  to  take  priority  over  the 
ancient  tongues,  and  the  practical  proposals  with  which  his  pamphlet 
closes  culminate  in  the  following  demand  :  the  course  of  instruction 
must  begin  with  a  preparatory  schooling  in  phonology.  For  this  pur- 
pose teachers  should  study  phonetics.  They  should  know  how  the 
organs  of  speech  act  in  the  production  of  the  various  sounds.  They 
should  be  qualified  to  give  their  pupils  elementary  instruction  about 
this,  proper  helps  and  hints  for  the  right  enunciation  of  sounds. 
They  should  be  able,  as  soon  as  a  mistake  in  pronunciation  is  made, 
to  indicate  to  the  pupil  where  his  error  of  articulation  lies. 

Further  :  the  elementary  language-book  should  contain  fresh,  stir- 
ring reading-material,  and  from  this  all  further  instruction  should 
take  its  start.  No  material  analogous  to  the  Corfielius  Nepos  of  the 
Latin  period,  says  Victor,  but  something  from  the  rich  treasures  of 
rhymes  and  stories,  riddles  and  songs.  Spring,  summer,  autumn,  and 
winter,  and  all  that  these  seasons  have  to  offer  of  work,  enjoyment 
and  play.  Home  and  hearth,  garden,  field,  and  wood,  land  and  water, 
earth  and  sky  —  of  these  the  children  should  read  in  the  foreign 
tongue,  they  should  be  trained  to  converse  with  their  teachers  about 
them  entirely  in  the  foreign  language. 

Vietor's  understanding  of  the  course  of  the  analytical-inductive 
method  is  as  follows  :  "  No  home  preparation  shall  be  demanded  of 
the  pupil.  The  teacher  reads  aloud  in  class  a  short  piece  slowly  and 
distinctly  as  many  times  as  may  be  necessary,  during  which  exercise 
the  books  of  the  pupils  are  closed.  He  furnishes  the  meanings  of  the 
words  not  yet  known  nor  likely  to  be  inferred  from  the  context,  leav- 
ing the  complete  translation  to  the  spirit  of  rivalry  of  the  class,  which 
must  be  kept  of  course  under  strict  control.  Then  the  books  are 
opened.  The  teacher  reads  the  piece  aloud  again  or  allows  one  of 
the  best  pupils  to  present  it ;  others  —  the  number  of  volunteers  will 
be  great  —  follow  in  reading  and  in  translating.  After  he  has  assured 
himself  that  they  understand  the  meaning  of  each  individual  word, 
the  teacher  puts  questions  to  the  pupils  regarding  the  content  of  the 
text  read  (under  some  circumstances  first  in  the  mother  tongue,  then 
in  the  foreign  language) ;  and  answers  are  to  be  given  from  the  open 
book  in  the  foreign  language  and  in  complete  sentences.  The  books 
are  now  closed,  and  first  the  confident  pupils,  later  the  more  timid, 
reproduce  the  story  in  the  foreign  tongue.  Then  writing  may  begin. 
First  on  the  blackboard,  then  in  the  note-book,  both  in  the  form  of 
answers  to  questions  set  by  the  teacher.    In  the  next  hour  of  instruction 


REFORM   OF  MODERN-LANGUAGE  TEACHING  23 

the  piece  is  repeated.  A  list  of  words  in  phonetic  transcription  at 
the  end  of  the  reader,  later  a  dictionary,  enable  the  pupil  to  look  up 
at  home  vocables  which  have  escaped  his  memory.  The  learning  or 
memorizing  of  words  is  not  demanded,  and  the  teacher  does  not 
announce  that  a  poem  or  a  suitable  prose  piece  is  to  be  recited  in  the 
next  period  until  the  great  majority  of  the  pupils  leave  the  class  with 
the  consciousness  that  they  '  already  know  it '  and  desire  to  repeat  it 
to  their  parents. 

"  Written  work  to  be  done  at  home  shall  not  be  assigned,  and 
translating  into  the  foreign  language  is  an  art  that  has  no  connec- 
tion with  study  in  school.  In  the  course  of  time  the  treatment  of  the 
reading  matter  must  become  more  independent,  but  the  double  aim 
—  understanding  and  reproduction  — should  never  be  lost  to  sight. 
That  the  work  of  reproduction  will  soon  have  at  its  disposal  an  ever- 
increasing  stock  of  spontaneous  forms  of  thought  and  expression,  is 
self-evident.  But  what  of  grammatical  detail?  Quite  of  its  own 
accord  this  will  attach  itself  to  the  reading.  At  frequent  intervals 
the  reading  matter  which  has  been  studied  in  the  meantime  should 
be  reviewed  with  definite  chapters  of  grammar  in  mind,  and  the 
results  systematically  classified  and  used  to  supplement  former 
statements.  There  is  not  the  least  doubt  that  the  foreign  language 
must  be  spoken  in  the  class.  Instruction  in  the  classical  languages 
has  with  its  present-day  methods  not  attained  the  goal  of  expression. 
From  this  failure  we  can  learn  how  not  to  teach." 

Although  I  do  not  agree  in  all  details  with  the  "father  of  the 
reform  "  whom  I  admire  so  highly,  I  have  thought  it  best  to  give  an 
exact  statement  of  his  views,  but  I  reserve  the  privilege  of  showing 
later  how  in  practice  much  has  assumed  another  form  than  that 
originally  intended.  His  fame  of  having  by  his  strong  cry  of  warn- 
ing prepared  the  way  for  needed  and  helpful  innovations  has  of 
course  not  been  lessened  by  the  fact  that  expectation  and  realization 
have  not  always  met. 

Victor's  views  met  with  enthusiastic  approbation  and  energetic 
protest.  In  the  clash  of  opinions  the  modest,  earnest  man  continued 
quietly  in  his  course,  conscious  of  his  purpose.  He  worked  unceas- 
ingly away  on  the  new  edition  of  his  famous  work,  Ehttiente  der 
Phonetik  und  Orthoepie  des  JDeutschen,  Englischen  und  Franzosischen 
mit  R'ucksicht  atif  die  Bed'urfnisse  der  Lehrpraxis,  an  abridged  edition 
of  which  he  published  in  1897,  under  the  title  Kleine  Phonetik.  He 
prepared  for  foreigners  desirous  of  learning  German  an  excellent 


24  THE  TEACHING  OF   MODERN   LANGUAGES 

little  book,  Gertnan  rronunciatioti,  Practice  arid  Theory^  and  the 
pamphlet  entitled  Wic  ist  die  Aussprache  dcs  Deutschen  zu  Icliren  ? 
He  published  the  phonetic  charts  which  have  proved  so  advanta- 
geous for  the  teaching  of  pronunciation  on  a  phonetic  basis,  and  a 
reader,  Dcuischcs  LesehiicJi  in  Lauischrift  ah  Hiilfshuch  zur  Envcrbuiig 
einer  7nush-rg}}Itigen  Aussprache.  He  founded  and  edited  the  period- 
icals Phonetische  Studien  and  Die  Tieueren  Sprachen,  the  latter  the 
authoritative  organ  of  the  German  reform  movement.  And  finally, 
as  university  professor  at  Marburg,  he  developed  a  corps  of  capable 
modern-language  teachers  to  whom  he  gave  a  thorough  training  in 
phonetics  as  an  invaluable  aid  in  their  difficult  calling. 

And  the  movement  that  Vietor  had  started  in  his  pamphlet  was 
successfully  carried  out  by  like-minded,  efficient  teachers  wdth  peda- 
gogical talent,  ever  on  the  watch  for  the  practical.  A  large  literature 
relating  to  methods  has  appeared,  Victor's  suggestions  have  been 
elaborated  in  detail,  and  many  a  new  hint,  many  a  careful  modifica- 
tion, many  a  piece  of  practical  advice,  have  been  found  profitable 
in  the  schoolroom. 

As  a  lively  interest  has  been  manifested  in  these  writings  by 
American  teachers,  I  w^ould  submit  the  following  list  which  I  have 
selected  from  the  mass  of  reform  literature  as  of  greatest  importance 
for  any  further  study  of  the  subject. 

Bahlsen,   Der  franzosische  Sp7-achunterricht  im   fienett  Kurs.     Berlin, 

1892. 
BlERBAUM,  Die  analyiisch-direkte  Methode.     Kassel,  1889. 
Breymanx,  Dernetisprachliche  Unterricht  a7i  Gymnasien  tind  RealscJuden, 

Miinchen,  1882. 
Breymann  und  Moller,  Zur  Refor7n  des  netisprachlichett  Unterrichts. 

Miinchen,  1884. 
Fetter,  Ein  Versuch  viit  der  analytischen  Lehrmethode  beiin  Unterricht 

in  der  fraiizosischen  Sprache.     Wien,  1890. 
Franke,  Die  praktische  Spracherlernung  auf  Grund  der  Psychologie  und 

Physiologic.     Heilbronn,  1884. 
Hornemann,  Zur  Refortn  des  netisprachlichen   Unterrichts  auf  hoheren 

Lehranstalten.     2  Hefte.     Hannover,  1885,  1886. 
Klinghardt,  Ein  Jahr  Erfahrungen  tnit  der  7ieuen  Methode.     Marburg, 

1888. 
Klinghardt,  Die  Alten  und  die  Ju7ige7t.     Marburg,  1888. 

1  The  German  edition  was  entitled  Die  Aussprache  des  Schriftdeutschen,  mit 
dem  Worterverzeichnis  fi<r  die  deiitsche  Rechtschreibung  in  phonetischer  Umschrift 
sowie  phonetische n  Texten.    4te  Auflage,  Leipzig,  Reisland's  Verlag,  1898. 


REFORM   OF  MODERN-LANGUAGE  TEACHING 


25 


Klinghardt,  Drei  weiterejahre  Erfahriingen  mit  der  imitativen  Methode. 

Marburg,  1892. 
KiJHN,  Zur  Methode  des  franzbsischen  Sprac/ttuiterrichis.     Wiesbaden, 

1883. 
KiJHN,   Entwurf  eines  Lehrplafts  fiir  den  fransosischen  Unterricht  am 

Realgyuniasitmi.     (^Mittel-  11  nd  Oberstufe.)     Marburg,  1889. 
LouviER,  Uber  Natiirgetudfiheit  iin  fre?ndsprac]ilichen  Uiiterricht.    Ham- 
burg, 3te  Auflage,  1888. 
Mangold,  Geloste  und  ungeloste  Fragen  der  MetJiodik.     Berlin,  1892, 
Mij'iiCH,  Zur  Forderuttg  des  franzosischen  Unterrichts.     Heilbronn,  1883. 

(2te  umgearbeitete  Auflage,  Leipzig,  1895.) 
Ohlert,  Die  frcfudsprachliche  Reformbewegnng  mit  besonderer  Beriick- 

sichtigiing  des  Franzosischen.     Konigsberg,  1886. 
Ohlert,  Methodische  Anleitung  zion  Unterricht  ifn  Fransbsischeft.    Han- 
nover, 1893. 
QuiEHL,  Franzosische  Aussprache  ntid  Sprachfertigkeit.     Marburg,  1889. 

(2te  Auflage,  1893.) 
Rambeau,  Der  franzosische  und  englische   Unterricht  in  der  deiitschen 

Schule.     Hamburg,  1886. 
Von  Roden,  Iniviefern  mufi  der  Sprachiaiterricht  umkehreti  f    Marburg, 

1890. 
Von  Sallwurk,  Fiinf  Kapitel  vom  Erlernen  fremder  Sprachen.     Berlin, 

1898. 
Stiehler,  Streifziige  anf  dem  Gebiet  der  neusprachlichen  Reformbewe- 

gung.     Marburg,  1890. 
Stiehler,   Zur   Methodik  des   neusprachlichen    Unterrichts.     Marburg, 

1891. 
Walter,  Die  Reform  des  netisprachlicheit   Unterrichts  auf  Schule  und 

Universitdt.     Mit  einem  Nachwort  von  WilJielm  Victor.     Marburg. 
Walter,  Der  franzosische   Klassenunterricht  {Utiterstufe^.     Marburg, 

1895. 
Walter,  Englisch  nach  dem  Frankfurter  Refor7npla7i.     Marburg,  1898. 
Watzoldt,  Die  Aufgabe  des  neusprachlichen  Unterrichts  und  die  Vorbil- 

dung  der  Lehrer.     Berlin,  1892. 

An  almost  complete  bibliography  of  the  entire  material  is  to  be 
found  in  Hermann  Breymann's  Die  iieusprachliche  Refonnlitteratur 
von  i8j6  bis  i8gj  (Leipzig,  1895),  in  which  over  eight  hundred  arti- 
cles and  books  for  and  against  the  reform  movement  are  cited.  In 
his  second  bibliographical  work,  Die  tieusprachliche  Reformlitteratur 
von  i8g4  bis  i8gg  (Leipzig,  1900),  Breymann,  who  is  a  professor  at 
the  University  of  Munich,  supplemented  his  former  praiseworthy 
publication. 


26  THE  TEACHING  OF  MODERN  LANGUAGES 

Whoever  would  be  convinced  of  the  practical  results  which  these 
reform  proposals  and  endeavors  of  Victor  and  his  followers  have 
effected,  should  visit  the  Miisicrschule  in  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  which 
is  under  the  competent  direction  of  Max  Walter.  There  the  director 
gives  instruction  in  French  and  English  according  to  the  "  new 
method,"  and  capable  teachers  work  under  his  guidance  successfully 
along  the  same  lines. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  even  to-day  many  university  professors 
and  teachers  of  modern  languages  in  German  schools  are  unfavorably 
disposed  toward  the  entire  reform  movement.  The  old  and  easy 
method  of  grammatical  analysis  will  undoubtedly  for  a  long  time 
boast  of  many  stubborn  followers,  —  but  regardless  of  their  protests 
we  have  proceeded  to  the  order  of  the  day,  and  the  so-called  "  Decem-  «/ 
ber  Conference,"  summoned  in  1890  by  the  Emperor,  recommended, 
besides  a  material  abridgment  of  instruction  in  grammar,  a  method 
of  teaching  which  should  start  with  reading  and  develop  a  knowledge 
of  grammar  as  a  result  of  this  reading.  A  new  goal,  —  so  ran  the  last 
decree  of  that  Schulenquetekommission,  —  shall  from  now  on  be  set  * 
all  higher  schools,  the  oral  and  written  employment  of  the  foreign 
language  shall  be  placed  in  the  foreground,  and  grammar  shall  be 
merely  the  means  to  an  end ! 

In  Austria  the  higher  authorities  had  already  recognized  the 
necessity  for  a  reform  in  modern-language  teaching.  As  early  as 
May,  1887,  the  Minister  of  Education  in  Vienna  had  declared  that 
the  methods  of  teaching  English  and  French  must  deviate  from  those 
used  in  teaching  the  ancient  languages;  must  above  all  else  strive  to 
render  the  modern  languages  a  means  of  international  communica- 
tion. And  in  the  decrees  of  the  Austrian  educational  authorities  an 
important  step  was  taken  in  advance  of  the  German  position,  for 
these  regulations  exclude  from  the  lower  classes  translations  from 
the  mother  tongue,  admitting  them  only  as  of  secondary  importance 
in  the  middle  and  upper  classes.  In  place  of  such  translation  the 
Austrian  schools  substitute  dictation,  questions  and  answers,  remodel- 
ing, reproduction ;  in  short,  tasks  which  lie  within  the  domain  of  the 
foreign  language,  which  are  in  close  connection  with  the  reading,  and 
serve  to  arouse  a  feeling  for  the  language.  So  Austrian  official  circles 
drew  radical  conclusions  from  the  reform  in  methods  even  earlier, 
and  with  greater  vigor,  than  those  of  Germany. 

I  know  that  university  professors  in  America,  the  land  of  rapid 
progress,  often  regard  the  speaking  of  foreign  languages  as  a  goal 


REFORM  OF  MODERN-LANGUAGE  TEACHING  27 

not  attainable  by  the  school,  or  as  of  little  consequence.  And  others 
fear  perhaps  that  with  so  practical  an  end  in  view  the  formal  edu- 
cational worth  of  language  study  will  be  lost.  In  reply  to  such 
doubts,  Dr.  Schulze,  Director  of  the  College  Frangais  in  Berlin,  has 
spoken  as  follows  :  "  If  the  modern  foreign  languages  are  taught  in 
the  way  that  Latin  was  formerly  taught,  with  the  intention  of  speak- 
ing it,  they  will  exercis6  an  important  and  peculiar  influence  in  the 
development  of  the  child's  intellectual  power.  They  give  the  mind 
a  versatility  which  the  present  method  of  instruction  in  Latin  and 
Greek  can  never  impart.  They  develop  —  in  contrast  to  classical 
instruction,  which  is  directed  solely  toward  the  cultivation  of  the 
logical  faculties  —  a  productive  ability,  an  artistic  ease  in  creation, 
which  is  absolutely  necessary  as  a  counterbalance." 

Professor  Adolf  Tobler,  the  famous  Romance  scholar  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Berlin,  considers  it  too  great  resignation,  too  unbounded 
modesty,  to  believe  that  in  foreign-language  teaching  the  hope  of 
imparting  actual  ability  to  speak  must  be  renounced.  "  To  speak 
and  write  a  foreign  tongue  is  a  means  of  instruction  of  such  far- 
reaching  consequence  that  it  must  be  insisted  upon."  It  is  difficult 
to  understand  how  Tobler,  after  uttering  these  words,  could  remain 
in  his  sympathies  on  the  side  of  the  opposition  to  the  reform  move- 
ment, and  yet  such  is  the  fact.  As  university  professor  did  he 
anticipate  that  the  endeavors  of  future  teachers  of  modern  languages 
would  be  too  much  directed  towards  attaining  fluency  in  speaking  ? 
Or  did  he  fear  that  they  would  devote  too  much  attention  to  the 
modern,  living  language,  and  too  little  to  the  older  stages  of  linguistic 
development,  that  they  would  train  a  generation  of  young  people 
who  would  no  longer  take  pleasure  in  the  traditional  strictly  philo- 
logical study  of  the  literary  monuments  of  the  Middle  Ages .'' 

In  the  strife  of  opinions  which  filled  the  first  decade  after  the 
appearance  of  Victor's  reform  pamphlet,  two  sharply  defined  camps 
were  distinguished :  on  one  side  the  teachers  of  the  classics  and  those 
modern-language  teachers  who  held  fast  to  old-style  grammar-study, 
upon  whose  banner  was  inscribed  the  battle-cry  "  logical  linguistic 
training";  on  the  other  the  advocates  of  phonetics,  the  opponents 
of  translation  methods,  teachers  who  laid  stress  upon  the  feeling  for 
a  language  and  the  practical  application  of  it  in  conversation  and 
written  expression  rather  than  upon  extensive  grammatical  knowl- 
edge. The  result  was  a  secession,  at  the  general  German  Philologen- 
imd  Schulmdnnertage   of   the    modern-language   teachers  who  were 


28  TIIK  TEACHING  OF  MODERN  LANGUAGES 

favorable  to  the  reform  movement.  Every  other  year  German  A^cu- 
philologentage  are  held,  at  which  a  valiant  fight  for  new  ideals  is 
waged.  A  crisis  came  at  the  Berlin  meeting  in  June,  1892,  when 
Stephan  Watzoldt  advocated  in  glowing  words  the  reform  of  foreign- 
language  teaching  in  the  schools  and  universities,  and  his  auditors 
cheered  him  to  the  echo.     The  victory  of  the  new  method  was  won. 

This  does  not  mean,  however,  that  the  teachers  of  modern  lan- 
guages in  Germany  approve  unconditionally  of  all  Victor's  plans. 
With  most  of  them  there  has  gradually  developed  in  practice  a 
method  which  holds  aloof  from  the  excesses  of  either  of  the  two 
diametrically  opposed  tendencies  ;  which  proceeds  mediatingly,  select- 
ing from  all  reform  experiments  and  innovations  what  is  best  and 
most  practical. 

After  some  experience  and  observation  in  America  I  should  regard 
such  a  course  as  well  adapted  to  American  conditions.  What  a 
few  of  the  most  radical  reformers  have  demanded,  the  renunciation 
of  systematic  grammar,  cannot  be  recommended  in  a  land  where 
the  majority  of  the  pupils  speak  English  as  their  mother  tongue. 
The  grammatical  categories  must  be  rendered  more  intelligible  to  the 
children,  and  for  this  purpose  a  language  richer  than  English  in 
inflection  should  be  studied.  The  inflections  of  Latin,  for  example, 
are  certainly  of  much  assistance  in  giving  a  clear  comprehension  of 
grammar;  but  when  this  is  not  studied,  the  desired  assistance  in 
acquiring  that  grammatical  insight  which  must  be  attained  in  school 
should  be  sought  in  German,  which  is  more  highly  inflected  than 
English,  or  in  French. 

Work  therefore  towards  systematic  grammar  even  in  modern- 
language  teaching.  But  do  not  start  with  the  system.  Do  not  begin, 
as  in  former  days,  with  practice  in  declensions  and  conjugations  ; 
begin  with  connected  texts,  even  if  they  be  short  and  easy,  from 
which  grammatical  forms  and  rules  can  be  gradually  discovered. 
And  when  a  sufficient  amount  of  grammatical  material  has  been  col- 
lected, then  place  together  what  is  homogeneous,  what  is  related,  and 
build  up  the  system.  This  analytical-inductive  course  is  warmly 
recommended  even  by  those  who  style  themselves  "  moderate 
reformers,"  as  whose  representatives  in  Germany  I  would  name 
above    all    others  Wilhelm    Miinch    and    Oskar   Ulbrich.^      Miinch 

1  Miinch  is  the  author  of  Zur  Forderung  des  franzosischen  Unterrichts  (ate 
Auflage,  Leipzig,  1895),  and  Ulbrich  of  Uber  die  franzosische  LektUre  an  Realgym- 
nasien  (Berlin,  1S84). 


REFORM  OF  MODERN-LANGUAGE  TEACHING  29 

regards  grammar  as  the  backbone  o£  all  language  instruction,  but 
warns  against  an  over-use  of  grammatical  rules  and  exceptions ; 
recommends  limiting  one's  self  to  the  typical,  the  important,  and  the 
essential.  With  Victor  he  firmly  advocates  "  learning  to  speak," 
without  which  modern-language  teaching  is  doomed  to  be  ridiculous, 
and  he  believes  that  continual  practice  in  conversation  in  con- 
nection with  the  reading  should  form  the  central  point  of  instruc- 
tion. He  emphasizes  the  ethical  and  aesthetic  benefit  derived  from 
cultivating  a  correct  pronunciation ;  he  would  have  the  pupils  held 
to  good  and  well-chosen  reading;  he  demands  that  every  teacher 
be  a  master  of  the  living  language,  and,  if  possible,  attain  in  the 
foreign  country  fluency  and  a  faultless  pronunciation.  In  his  high 
regard  for  phonetics  Miinch  also  agrees  with  Victor,  and  requires 
of  the  teacher  a  knowledge  of  the  elements  of  sound-physiology, 
but  warns  against  introducing  scientists'  terminology  into  the  class- 
room. Especial  emphasis  is  laid  upon  careful  drill  in  the  sounds 
peculiar  to  the  foreign  language  and  upon  a  most  distinct  articulation, 
but  phonetic  transcription  he  believes  to  be  superfluous.  He  recom- 
mends frequent  practice  of  the  ear  by  exercises  in  dictation  ;  admits 
the  worth  and  importance  of  free  composition,  of  independent  oral 
and  written  expression  of  thought ;  wishes  to  see  themes  carefully 
prepared  even  in  the  earlier  stages  of  instruction,  and  a  feeling 
for  the  language  developed.  And  yet  he  would  not  have  all  practice 
in  translation  laid  aside,  even  though  he  frankly  acknowledges  that 
rendering  the  native  classics  in  a  foreign  language  is  nonsense,  as 
even  the  best  achievements  of  pupils  in  this  line  can  be  nothing  more 
than  awkward  bungling. 

According  to  Miinch,  reading  must  no  longer  be  a  mere  gram- 
matical note-book.  The  content  must  have  its  proper  influence,  not 
only  in  the  later  stages  of  instruction  when  the  characteristic  pecu- 
liarities of  the  nation's  classics  and  their  importance  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  history  of  civilization  are  to  be  brought  home  to  the  pupil, 
but  from  the  very  start,  where  valuable  material  is  to  be  offered  the 
student.  Herein  he  opposes  the  theses  that  Wendt  (Hamburg)  pro- 
posed at  the  Neicphilologentag  in  Vienna,  which  limit  the  reading  of 
the  poets  to  a  course  of  six  months,  and  exclude  grammar  and  the  his- 
tory of  literature  from  the  school.  With  Victor  and  Watzoldt,  Miinch 
also  emphasizes  the  fact  that  the  final  goal  of  all  language  teach- 
ing is  a  comprehension  of  the  foreign  people's  spirit,  of  its  peculiar 
civilization.     An  important  factor  in  this  is  an  acquaintance  with  the 


30  THK  TEACHING  OF  MODERN  LANGUAGES 

Realim.  Klinghardt  in  1886  was  the  first,  to  my  knowledge,  to  call 
attention  to  this  field.  By  Rcalii'ii  he  understands  what  in  Latin 
and  Greek  are  called  "antiquities";  that  is,  everything  connected 
with  the  civilization  of  modern  nations  in  their  interpretation  of  life. 
And  this  field  should  be  brought  into  greater  prominence  by  the  use 
of  models  as  an  aid  in  class-room  and  in  private  reading,  by  text- 
books and  university  lectures.  Applied  to  American  educational 
conditions,  German  and  French  instruction  would  aim  to  impart  to 
the  pupils  a  knowledge  and  understanding  of  the  more  important 
details  of  the  geography  and  history  of  Germany  and  France,  of  their 
sagas,  folk-lore,  and  civilization,  of  their  government  and  institutions, 
of  the  manners  and  customs  of  former  and  more  recent  times  ;  would 
even  have  to  make  the  pupils  to  some  degree  conversant  with  such 
material  as  is  found  in  R.  Kron's  useful  reading-books.^ 

Many  and  various  other  suggestions  for  further  enlivening  modern- 
language  teaching  have  been  put  forward.  Divers  tendencies  which 
run  parallel  to  those  already  defined  influence  the  teaching  of  foreign 
languages  in  German  schools.  It  is  traceable  to  the  influence  of  such 
suggestions  that  recent  Prussian  Courses  of  Study  (1901)  allow  free 
compositions  in  the  foreign  language  to  be  written  in  the  upper  classes, 
for  these  are  considered  to  be  as  good  a  proof  of  knowledge  on  the 
student's  part  as  was  formerly  a  translation  exercise  interlarded  with 
grammatical  difficulties. 

Some  years  ago  Victor  and  his  friends  presented  to  the  Minister 
of  Education  in  Berlin  a  petition  which  urged  that,  as  the  new  method 
favored  by  the  government  trained  the  pupil  from  the  very  beginning 
in  free  expression  in  the  foreign  tongue,  no  translation  of  the  old  style 
be  demanded  in  the  final  examination.  The  Prussian  government 
seemed  to  recognize  the  justice  of  this  objection,  and  in  this  matter 
allowed  the  teachers  of  the  modern  languages  the  desired  freedom 
in  method.  In  other  respects,  also,  material  concessions  were  made 
to  the  demands  of  the  reformers ;  for  the  regulations  declare  that  the 
German  gymnasium  should  lay  greater  stress  upon  oral  performances 
in  modern  foreign  languages  than  upon  written,  and  should  desist 
entirely  from  written  examinations.  In  the  official  ordinances  of  the 
seventies  one  could  still  read  "  Development  of  fluency  in  speaking 
cannot  be  the  task  of  the  school,"  but  the   most  recent  Prussian 

^  German  Daily  Life :  /n/ormation  on  the  various  topics  of  Gertnan  life,  man- 
ners, and  institutions,  and  French  Daily  Life :  A  guide  for  the  student  as  well  as 
for  the  traveller  (New  York,  1901). 


REFORM  OF  MODERN-LANGUAGE  TEACHING  31 

Courses  of  Study  demand  training  in  speaking,  higher  standards  of 
reading  materials,  familiarization  with  the  foreign  people's  spirit. 
A  new  concession  to  the  method  of  not  translating  is  the  ordinance 
that  even  in  the  reading  hour  a  discussion  of  the  content  in  the 
foreign  language  may  at  times  be  substituted  for  the  translation  of 
the  text  into  the  mother  tongue.  The  use  of  phonetic  transcription, 
formerly  forbidden  in  German  schools,  has  not  indeed  been  gen- 
erally adopted,  but  is  allowed  whenever  a  teacher  regards  it  as  prof- 
itable. Reading  and  speaking,  practice  of  the  ear,  dictations,  and 
free  compositions  have  now  by  official  order  been  brought  into  the 
foreground.  The  methods  of  modern-foreign-language  teaching  have 
indeed  changed  very  materially  from  those  of  former  days :  they  have 
been  remodeled  to  meet  the  demands  and  needs  of  a  new  time  and 
of  modern  educational  ideals. 

Martin  Hartmann,  who  stands  at  the  head  of  the  reformers  of 
modern-language  teaching  in  Saxony,  has  made  pregnant  suggestions 
in  various  directions.  In  an  important  work^  he  showed  with  what 
profit  and  success  pictures  may  be  used  in  teaching,  how  excellently 
they  are  adapted  to  impel  children  to  speak  and  to  convey  to  them  the 
materials  of  the  foreign  language  without  the  mediation  of  the  mother 
tongue.  This  same  Professor  Hartmann  advocated  school  corre- 
spondence, and  succeeded  in  leading  thousands  of  German  boys  and 
girls  to  correspond,  under  the  guidance  of  their  teachers,  with  other 
pupils  in  France  and  England.  Every  year  he  engages  foreigners, 
skilled  instructors  in  elocution,  to  present  to  the  pupils  in  the  various 
cities  of  Germany  selected  specimens  of  French,  English,  and  Amer- 
ican literature.  As  is  well  known,  modern-language  instruction  in 
Germany  is  given  only  by  German-born  teachers  (the  few  foreigners 
teaching  in  private  schools  need  scarcely  be  taken  into  account) ; 
hence  it  may  be  estimated  how  profitable  it  must  be  for  our  pupils  to 
hear  real  foreigners  now  and  then.  Similar  arrangements,  especially 
for  Berlin,  were  made  fifteen  years  ago  by  Kabisch  and  Bahlsen,  and 
during  each  winter  opportunity  is  offered  language  teachers  to  hear 
the  poetical  and  prose  pieces  which  are  to  be  taken  up  in  class,  read 
by  French  and  English  reciters.  As  this  plan  has  met  with  such 
great  success  in  Germany,  it  should  encourage  American  teachers  not 
to  be  satisfied  with  occasionally  sending  the  pupils  to  the  theatrical 
presentation  of  a  French  or  German  classic,  but  to  afford  them  fre- 
quent occasion  of  hearing  adequate  performances  by  foreign  readers. 

^  Die  AnschaituHg  im  neusprachlichen  Unterrichte  (Wien,  1S95). 


J- 


rilK    IKACHING   OF  MODERN   LANGUAGES 


The  question  of  a  standard  pronunciation  must  be  taken  into  account, 
and  it  seems  to  me  particularly  important  in  German  instruction  that 
teacher  and  pupil  have  continual  opportunity  to  hear  the  utterance 
which,  since  the  transactions  of  the  German  Aussprachekonferenzy  is 
alone  regarded  as  authoritative:  the  North  German  stage  pronuncia- 
tion. In  addition  to  the  work  of  Wilhelm  Vietor  already  mentioned,^ 
I  would  recommend  another  pamphlet  ^  of  his  and  a  brochure  *  of 
Theodore  Siebs,  professor  at  the  University  of  Greifswald. 

In  the  teaching  of  French  in  American  schools  the  question  of 
standard  pronunciation  could  scarcely  arise,  as  from  time  immemorial 
the  French  of  Parisian  society  life  has  offered  the  model  for  every-day 
discourse,  and  in  elevated  diction  the  stage  pronunciation  of  the 
The'atre  Frangais  has  had  an  indisputable  authority. 

It  is  quite  natural  that  those  who  teach  their  German  or  French 
mother  tongue  in  America  should  be  more  or  less  under  the  influence 
of  a  provincial  dialect.  They  may  not  care  to  rid  themselves  of 
this  dialect  and  acquire  a  standard  pronunciation,  but  they  cannot 
close  their  eyes  to  the  fact  that  a  supreme  court  of  appeal  is  neces- 
sary and  desirable  if  a  uniform  pronunciation  is  to  be  attained  by 
the  pupil.  In  the  three  or  four  years  during  which  instruction  in 
German  is  imparted,  American  pupils  often  have  several  different 
teachers  :  one  of  these  may  be  under  the  influence  of  a  South  Ger- 
man or  Austrian  dialect,  another  uses  Berlin  or  Saxon  provincialisms, 
while  a  third  comes  perhaps  from  Hanover;  and  each  may  more 
or  less  consciously  introduce  characteristic  features  of  his  native 
dialect  into  his  teaching.  It  is  impossible  to  eliminate  completely 
the  consequences  of  such  diversity,  but  in  the  interest  of  a  pure  and 
true  pronunciation  in  American  schools  it  would  be  desirable  if  the 
resolutions  of  the  AussprachekonfereJiz  might  be  recognized  as  stand- 
ard German  in  all  doubtful  cases  and  thus  as  great  unanimity  might 
be  secured  as  has  so  long  prevailed  in  the  teaching  of  French. 

In  order  to  establish  a  certain  uniformity  of  pronunciation,  French 
as  well  as  German  texts  have  been  published  for  American  schools 
with  accompanying  phonetic  transcription,  and  I  would  urgently 
advise  teachers  to  give  them  at  least  a  trial.* 

^  Die  Aussprache  des  Schriftdeiitschen. 

2  Wie  ist  die  Aussprache  des  Deutschen  zu  lehren  ?   (3te  Auflage,  Marburg,  1901). 

3  Deutsche  Biihnenaussprache  (Berlin,  1898). 

*  A  French  anthology,  Chrestomathie  fraufaise,  morceaux  choisis  de  prose  et  de 
poesie  avec  prononciation  figuree  d,  V usage  des  Strangers,  par  Jean  Passy  et  Adolphe 


REFORM  OF  MODERN-LANGUAGE  TEACHING  33 

The  demand  that  present-day  teaching  of  modern  languages  shall 
make  the  pupil  conversant  with  the  so-called  Realien  has  aroused  great 
'activity  in  another  direction.  Teachers  have  selected  more  modern 
materials  for  school  reading  and  have  avoided  the  exclusive  study 
of  classic  authors  or  historians.  They  have  supplemented  the  read- 
ing with  maps,  sketches,  and  pictures  which  give  the  pupil  detailed 
explanations  of  many  things  which  the  schoolmen  of  former  times 
believed  unworthy  to  be  discussed  in  class.  They  have  begun,  and 
surely  with  propriety,  to  take  interest  in  pictures  which  represent 
French  and  German  landscapes  and  cities,  places  of  historic  interest, 
famous  architectural  monuments,  streets  and  public  squares,  impos- 
ing personalities  of  earlier  and  more  recent  times,  types  of  every-day 
life  —  in  fact,  everything  that  could  be  interesting  and  instructive 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  history  of  civilization.  It  has  been 
recommended  to  portray  in  elementary  books  the  inside  of  a  French 
or  German  city-dwelling  or  farmhouse ;  to  reproduce  original  let- 
ters in  characteristic  handwriting,  for  it  is  a  much-lamented  draw- 
back that  even  our  advanced  pupils,  in  spite  of  a  thorough  mastery 
of  the  foreign  language,  are  not  able  to  decipher  letters  written  by 
foreigners.  In  evening  schools  and  in  business  colleges  it  would  be 
profitable  to  bring  to  the  attention  of  the  pupils  exact  copies  of  com- 
mercial letters,  announcements,  bills  of  exchange,  etc.  And  at  the 
same  time  the  coinage  of  a  foreign  land  should  not  be  neglected ; 
many  a  new  text-book  for  German  schools  gives  reproductions  of  coins. 
Professor  Wilhelm  Scheffler  of  Dresden  has  recommended  that  a  map 
of  Paris  in  the  Middle  Ages,  Holzel's  Paris,  or  a  bird's-eye  view  of 
Berlin  be  hung  in  the  class-room  and  made  the  basis  of  conversa- 
tion in  the  foreign  language.  He  has  had  models  constructed  on 
trustworthy  historic  lines,  which  bring  before  the  pupils  in  plastic 
form  the  Bastille,  the  Theatre  MoUere,  and  a  ruelle,  i.e.  a  literary 
salon  of  the  seventeenth  century.  In  like  manner  he  intends  to 
issue  soon  a  model  of  the  Weimar  theater  at  the  time  of  Goethe  and 
Schiller,  a  representation  of  the  casting  of  a  bell,  etc. 

In  a  discourse  delivered  at  the  forty-fifth  meeting  of  German 
philologians  and  schoolmen  at  Bremen  in  1899,  I  recommended 
the   establishment   of   archives  for  modern-language   instruction  in 

Rambeaii,  precedes  d''une  introduction  stir  la  methode  phoiietiqiie  (2d  revised  edition, 
New  York,  1901);  and  the  first  volume  in  a  series  of  "Ideophonic  Texts  for 
Acquiring  Languages,"  Schiller's  Wilhelm  Tell,  Act  /,  edited  by  Robert  Morris 
Pierce,  Editorial  Critic  George  Ilcmpl  (New  York,  1900). 


34  THE  TEACHING  OF  MODERN  LANGUAGES 

which  material  for  object  lessons  might  be  kept,  together  with  a  rich 
library  that  would  furnish  the  teacher  with  a  knowledge  of  the  Rcalicn 
important  for  his  subject,  and  guide  him  in  a  domain  to  which  his 
previous  study  had  not  directly  brought  him.  Such  archives  would 
be  the  armory  from  which  we  could  choose  weapons  for  a  teaching 
full  of  life  and  inspiration. 

I  have  been  able  to  touch  but  briefly  upon  the  manifold  efforts 
which  in  our  day  are  seeking  to  serve  and  further  instruction  in 
modern  foreign  languages.  One  thing  I  hope  has  been  brought  home 
to  my  readers  in  this  general  survey  of  the  field  :  the  ways  and  ends 
of  modern-language  teaching  are  now  conceived  to  be  totally  differ- 
ent from  those  which  characterize  the  teaching  of  the  ancient  lan- 
guages. Activity,  purposefulness,  and  courage  have  been  shown  by 
the  reformers,  and  we  may  hope  that  after  the  gale  which  has  swept 
away  so  much  of  the  dust  and  dead  ballast  of  modern-language 
teaching  has  subsided,  an  enlivening  breeze  may  blow  through  the 
class-room  to  the  delight  of  the  pupil  and  joy  of  the  teacher. 


III.    PRONUNCIATION 

PHONETICS,  SOUND-PHYSIOLOGY,  PHONETIC 
TRANSCRIPTION 

Johan  Storm  is  Professor  of  Romance  and  English  Philology  at  the 
University  of  Christiania,  in  a  country  whose  educational  system  has 
entered  upon  rapid  advancement  and  where  the  "Quousque  Tandem 
method"  has  numerous  advocates.  In  his  highly-esteemed  book, 
Die  kbeiide  Sprac/ie,  he  says  :  "  As  long  as  teachers  of  modern  foreign 
languages  are  wanting  in  a  clear  understanding  of  the  proper  pro- 
duction and  utilization  of  speech-sounds,  their  instruction  in  accurate 
pronunciation  will  be  a  mere  groping  about  in  the  dark."  Hence 
Storm  recommends  to  teachers  a  thorough  study  of  sound-physiology, 
of  phonetics. 

This  is  not  an  entirely  new  science.  As  early  as  1836  M.  Rapp 
had  drawn  attention  to  this  important  branch  of  language  study  by 
his  Versuch  zu  einer  Physiologic  dcr  Sprache.  But  he  had  absolutely 
nothing  trustworthy  to  offer ;  and,  in  the  sad  condition  of  language 
instruction  which  existed  at  that  time,  teachers  drew  no  inspiration 
from  his  researches  and  made  no  practical  application  of  them.  In 
1848  Alexander  John  Ellis,  professor  at  Cambridge,  came  into  promi- 
nence as  the  earliest  of  English  phoneticians  by  the  publication  of 
his  Essentials  of  Phonetics.  The  first  clearly  arranged  presentation 
of  the  science  of  phonetics,  however,  was  given  by  E.  Briicke  in 
Grundzicge  der  Physiologic  nnd  Systematik  der  Sprachlautc  (Wien, 
1856;  2d  edition,  1876),  in  which  he  gave  the  necessary  pictorial 
exhibits  for  the  demonstration  of  the  organism  of  speech.  It  was 
Briicke  too  who  invented  a  phonetic  transcription  which  imitated 
the  position  of  the  lips,  a  system  that  was  later  materially  perfected 
and  surpassed  by  Alexander  Melville  Bell  in  his  conspicuous  work 
Visible  Speech  (London,  1867).  Bell  has  worked  untiringly,  in  his 
lectures  and  in  his  books  alike,  to  render  the  elements  of  phonetics 
intelligible  to  wider  circles;  his  Sounds  and  their  Relations  appeared 
in  London,  1882  ;  Essays  on  Elocution,  New  York,  1886;    University 

35 


36  THi:  TEACHING  OF   MOUERN   LANGUAGES 

Lectures  on  Fhonctics,  New  York,  1887  ;  Popular  Manual  of  Vocal 
Physiology  and  Visible  Speech^  London,  1889;  Speech  Tones,  Wash- 
ington, 1S94. 

The  honor  of  having  put  the  science  of  phonetics  upon  an  endur- 
ing foundation  is  due  the  German  physicist  H.  Hehnholtz,  professor 
at  the  University  of  Berlin,  whose  epoch-making  Lehre  von  den  Ton- 
empfindungen  (Braunschweig,  1862  ;  4tl"i  edition,  1877)  has  exercised 
a  deep  influence  upon  the  leading  phoneticians  of  to-day ;  notably 
upon  Eduard  Sievers,  professor  at  the  University  of  Leipzig,  as  is 
attested  by  more  than  one  place  in  his  Gruridzuge  der  Lautphysiologie 
zur  Einfuhru?ig  in  das  Studium  der  Lautlehre  der  indogermanischen 
Sprachen  (Leipzig,  1876  ;  4th  edition,  1883)  and  Phonetik  (2d  edition, 
1898).  A  concise  but  excellent  survey  of  the  results  of  phonological 
investigation  was  given  by  Moritz  Trautmann,  professor  at  Bonn,  in 
the  first  volume  of  Afiglia,  1878,  and  more  in  detail  in  his  treatise 
Die  Sprachlaute  im  Allgemeinen  und  die  Laute  des  Englischen,  Frafizo- 
sischen  und  Deutschen  im  Besofidere?i  (Leipzig,  1884-86).  A  careful 
study  of  the  revised  edition  of  this  meritorious  publication  (under  the 
changed  title  Kleine  Lautlehre  des  Deutschen,  Franzosischen  ufid  Fng- 
lischen:  Bonn,  1903)  is  urgently  recommended  to  every  teacher  of 
modern  languages.  It  includes,  as  it  ought,  an  indication  of  the 
points  with  which  Trautmann  would  have  the  pupil  made  familiar. 

As  peer  of  Sievers  and  Trautmann  stands  Wilhelm  Vietor,  a  list 
of  whose  works  has  already  been  given  in  a  previous  chapter.  I 
would  content  myself  here  with  the  mere  mention  of  his  Elemente  der 
Phonetik  des  Deutschen,  Englischen  und  Franzosischeji  (Leipzig,  4th 
edition,  1894),  a  classical  example  of  German  industry  and  erudition. 
The  abridged  edition,  Kleine  Photietik  (Leipzig,  1897),  will  answer 
all  the  needs  of  the  ordinary  teacher.  Victor's  phonetic  charts, 
printed  in  colors,  bring  the  sounds  of  German,  French,  and  English 
before  the  eyes  of  the  pupils  with  great  distinctness,  and  are  meant  to 
serve  as  the  foundation  for  a  first  course  in  pronunciation.  These 
Lauttafehi  were  published  in  Marburg,  1893,  and  are  accompanied  by 
explanations  and  examples.  The  charts  which  Dr.  Adolph  Rambeau, 
professor  in  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  published 
in  1888  (Otto  Meissner,  Hamburg)  are  also  deserving  of  mention, 
as  are  his  pamphlet  Die  Photietik  im  franzosischen  und  etiglischen 
Klassetiunterricht  and  a  paper  read  by  him  before  the  Modern  Lan- 
guage Association  of  America  on  The  Value  of  Phonetics  in  Teaching 
Modern  Languages,  printed  in  the  second  volume  of  Victor's  Die 


PRONUNCIATION 


37 


neiieren  Sprachen.  And  further,  I  would  call  attention  to  the  French 
introduction  to  the  Chrestomathie  fran^aise  by  Rambeau  and  Jean 
Passy,  in  which  teachers  of  French  will  find  many  a  profitable  hint 
and  a  summary  of  the  leading  works  on  phonetics. 

The  most  complete  bibliographies  on  the  subject  are  to  be  found 
in  the  fourth  edition  of  Victor's  Elefnente  der  Pho?ietik  and  in  H. 
Breymann's  Die  Phoneiische  Litteratur  von  i8y6-i8g^  (Leipzig,  1897). 
It  may  be  of  service  to  my  American  colleagues  to  list  in  addition 
to  the  works  already  mentioned,  a  selection  of  such  others  as  are 
especially  valuable  for  a  teacher's  purposes. 

Beyer,  Das  Lautsyste/n  des  Neufranzosischen.     Kothen,  1887. 

Beyer  und  Passy,  Elementarbuch  des  gesprochenen  Franzosischen  und 

Ergdnzungsheft  dazu.     Kothen,  1894. 
Beyer,   Franzosische   Phoiietik  fiir  Lehrer  laid  Studieretide.     Kothen, 

2te  Auflage,  1897. 
Breymann,  Uber  Lautphysiologie  und  defe7t  Bedetctimg  fiir  den   Unter- 

richt.     Miinchen  und  Leipzig,  1884. 
Burt,  A  Mamial  of  Elementary  Phonetics.     Toronto,  1898. 
Grandgent,  Gcrtnan  and  Ejtglish  Sounds.     Boston,  1892. 
Hempl,  German  Orthography  and  Phonology.     Boston,  1898. 
Hoffmann,  Einfiihrung  in  die  PJionetik  und  Orthoepie  der  dentschen 

Sprache.     Marburg,  1888. 
Klinghardt,  Articulations-  und  Horiibungen.     Praktisclies  Hillfsbuch 

der  Phonetik  fiir  Studierende  und  LeJwer.     Kothen,  1897. 
l^OSCnwiTZ,  Les  Parlers parisiens.     Anthologie phonetique.     Paris,  1893. 
Von  Meyer,  Unsere  Sprachwerkzetige  utidihre  Verwendung  zur  Bildung 

der  Sprachlatite.     Leipzig,  18S0. 
V ASSY .,  Abrege  de prononciatioft  frati^aise.     Leipsic,  1897. 
Passy  and  H.  Michaelis,  Dictionnaire phonetique  de  la  langue  franqaise. 

Hanovre  et  Berlin,  1897. 
Passy,  VEcriture  phonetique.,  expose  populaire.     3^  Edition,  Paris,  1899. 
Passy,  Le  Franqais  parte.     46  edition,  Leipsic,  1896. 
Passy,  Les  Sons  du  franqais.     5^  Edition,  Paris,  1899. 
Quiehl,  Eififiihrutig  in  die  franzosische  Aussprache.     3te  Auflage,  Mar- 
burg, 1899. 
RoussELOT,  Principes  de  Phonetique  experimentale.     Paris,  1897. 
SoAMES,  An  Introduction  .to  Phonetics  {^French,  Ettglish  and  German^. 

London,  1891  (new  edition,  revised  by  W.  Victor,  London,  1899). 
SoAMES,  Phonetic  Method  for  Learning  to  Read.     The  Teacher's  Matiual, 

edited  by  W.  Victor.     London,  1897. 
Sweet,  A  Handbook  of  Phonetics.     Oxford,  1877. 
vSwEET,  A  Primer  of  Phonetics.     Oxford,  1890, 


38  THK  TKACHING  OF   MODERN  LANGUAGES 

Sweet,    Sound  Notation.      London,    iSSo-iSSi.      {Transactions   of  the 

Ph ilologica I  Society . ) 
Sweet,    The  Practical  Study  of  Languages.     A  guide  for  teachers  and 

learners.     London,  1899. 
Tech.mer,  Phonetik.     T.   Text  und  Anmerkungen.     //.  Atlas.     Leipzig, 

iSSo. 
Techmer,  Zur  Veranschauliclning  der  Lautbildung.     {Mit  Wandtafel.) 

Leipzig,  1 885. 

Andre,  Manuel  de  diction  et  de prononciatiotifran^aises.    Lausanne,  1893. 
Br^al,  De  Venseigneinent  des  langues  vivantes.     Paris,  1893. 
Fraxke,  Die  praktische  Spracherlernung.     Heilbronn,  1884. 
Franke,  Ergdn::ungsheft.     4te  Auflage,  Leipzig,  1894. 
Franke,  Phrases  de  tons  les  jours.     56  Edition,  Leipsic,  1893. 
Grandgent,  a   Short  French   Grammar  based  oti  Phonetics.     Boston, 

1894. 
Jespersen,    The  Articulations  of  Speech  Sounds  Represented  by  Means 

of  Analphabetic  Symbols.      Marburg,  1889. 
Matzke,  A  Primer  of  French  Pronunciatioti.     New  York,  1897. 
Passy,  De   la  me'thode  directe  de  Tenseignemetit  des  langues  vivatttes. 

Paris,  1899. 
Passy  et  Tostrup,  Lemons  de  choses  en  transcription  phonetique  pour 

servir  au  premier  enseignement  du  franqais.     Paris,  1895. 
Rambeau,  Phonetics  and  Reform   Method.     {Modern  Language  Notes, 

Baltimore;  June,  November,  December,  1893.) 
RiPPMANN,  Eletnents  of  Phonetics  {English,  Fretich  and  German).    Trans- 
lated and  adapted  from  Vietor's  Kleine  Phonetik.     London,  1899. 
Storm,   Englische  Philologie.     Die   lebende   Sprache :    i.  Phonetik   und 

Aussprache.     Leipzig,  1892. 

Four  periodicals  represent  the  study  of  phonetics  with  particular 
regard  to  the  needs  of  schools  : 

1.  Phonetische  Studien.     Zeitschrift  fiir  wissenschaftliche  und  praktische 

Phonetik,  mit  besonderer  Riicksicht  auf  die  Reform  des  Sprachunter- 
richts.     Edited  by  W.  Victor,  Marburg,  1 887-1 893. 

2.  Die  neueren  Sprachen.    Zeitschrift  fiir  den  neusprachlichen  Unterricht. 

A  continuation  of  Phonetische  Studien.     Edited  by  Viator,  Dorr,  and 
Rambeau.     Marburg,  since  1893. 

3.  Le  Maitre  phonetique.     Organ    mensuel   de  I'Association   phonetique 

Internationale.     Redaction  et  administration  :   Paul  Passy,  Paris. 

4.  Revue  Internationale  de  rhinologie,  otologie,  laryngologie,  et  photieti- 

que  experitfientale.     Directeurs :  Marcel  Natier  et  I'Abb^  Rousselot. 
Paris.  1899  et  1900.     Continued  under  new  title,  La  Parole. 


PRONUNCIATION 


39 


As  a  matter  of  course,  the  exertions  of  the  phoneticians  are 
directed  not  merely  towards  the  production  of  a  better  pronunciation 
of  language  in  the  schools,  but  towards  a  simplified  and  more  rational 
orthography,  one  which  does  not  constantly  violate  the  principle 
"  Write  as  you  speak  !  Give  an  equivalent  sign  for  every  spoken 
sound,  but  avoid  a  symbol  with  which  no  sound  in  the  pronunciation 
of  the  word  corresponds."  Phoneticians  are  thus  striving  for  a  Spell- 
ing Reform  which  would  write  laf  instead  of  laugh,  je  se  instead  of 
je  sai's,  kval  instead  of  dual.  Is  it  not  really  absurd  that  modern 
German  orthography  obliges  us  to  write  Dual,  ©aal,  '^<x\)\,  represent- 
ing the  same  long  a  sound  by  <x,  by  (x<x,  and  by  al)?  Phoneticians  are 
longing  for  the  happy  time  when  initial  capitals  shall  be  abolished 
and  we  shall  write  as  we  speak  :  kvdl,  zdl  or  sal,  and  tsdl. 

But  we  have  by  no  means  reached  this  ideal  stage,  and  French 
or  German  orthography  leads  children  beginning  language  study  to 
a  false  pronunciation  of  words  —  take  for  example  the  pronunciation 
of  German  :^\x  =  zoo,  instead  of  tsoo ;  a  mistake  so  difficult  to  eradi- 
cate, once  it  has  been  learned.  There  are  at  the  disposal  of  teachers 
two  possible  means  whereby  they  may  avert  the  injurious  effects  of 
the  historical  spelling  upon  pronunciation  :  they  may  determine  upon 
the  introduction  of  phonetic  transcription,  or  they  may  avoid  the  use 
of  sound-representation  until  considerable  phonetic  training  has  been 
obtained  and  the  foundation  laid  for  an  idiomatic  pronunciation  which 
cannot  be  materially  injured  by  a  misleading  orthography. 

The  following  arguments  may  be  cited  in  favor  of  the  use  of 
phonetic  transcription : 

1.  It  shows  the  pupils  distinctly  of  what  actually  spoken  sounds 
the  foreign  words  consist,  and  does  not  confuse  by  superfluous  signs 
or  letters,  which  are  given  in  the  conventional  rules  of  pronunciation 
as  "  silent." 

2.  Phonetic  transcription  corresponds  to  the  natural  course  which 
any  one  would  pursue  in  learning  a  new  language  —  say  the  Chinese 
—  whose  characters  were  unintelligible  to  him.  He  would  regard  it 
as  desirable  to  have  the  necessary  supply  of  words  pronounced  by 
a  foreigner,  and  would  then  attempt  to  establish  the  groups  of  for- 
eign sounds  in  such  a  way  as  should  seem  practical,  inventing  new 
signs  for  sounds  which  were  entirely  strange. 

3.  Languages  were  developed  long  before  alphabets  were  invented ; 
and  even  now  we  are  daily  becoming  acquainted  with  groups  of 
sounds,  constituting  words,  which  are  first  apprehended  by  civilized 


40 


THE  TEACHING   OF  MODERN   LANGUAGES 


nations    through    the    ear    and    afterwards    given    a    corresponding 
phonetic  speUing. 

4.  Historical  orthography  is  subject  to  arbitrary  modifications. 
The  German  spelling  of  certain  words  has  been  recently  changed 
again  for  the  third  or  fourth  time  within  a  single  generation.  But 
pronunciation  is  far  more  stable,  and  consequently  its  phonetic  ren- 
dering remains  fixed. 

5.  Phonetically  transcribed  texts  assist  one  in  teaching  pronuncia- 
tion. It  matters  little  how  often  the  foreign  words  have  been  dwelt 
upon  in  class,  the  sound  of  them  is  soon  lost.  The  memory  of  the 
correct  sounds  no  longer  lingers  when  the  pupil  attempts  to  repeat 
them  at  home.  The  perplexed  pupil  examines  the  orthography  of 
these  words  in  his  First  Book,  but  in  this  historical  spelling  the 
proper  sounds  are  unfortunately  not  always  to  be  found.  Any  one 
letter  presents  an  unvarying  appearance,  even  though  it  is  pronounced 
now  one  way  and  now^  another.  French  ai  is  pronounced  as  a  closed 
^-sound,  oi  as  zoa.  A  German  n  is  written,  but  the  teacher  has  pro- 
nounced an  f ;  a  b  or  an  e  stands  in  the  book,  but  the  teacher  spoke 
them  as  if  they  were  t  or  ci,  etc.  I  have  often  read  in  the  eyes  of 
American  children  their  wish  to  retain  the  sounds  as  pronounced  for 
them  by  the  teacher.  If  phonetic  transcription  is  not  employed,  every 
atom  of  home  preparation  must  be  done  aw^ay  with  during  the  first 
weeks ;  for  historical  orthography  not  only  does  not  assist  in  the  oral 
preparation  of  assigned  work,  it  is  a  positive  obstruction. 

6.  If  phonetic  signs  are  written  on  the  blackboard,  or  the  phonetic 
charts  of  Rambeau  or  Victor  are  used,  much  trouble  and  exertion 
will  be  spared  the  teacher.  Even  with  such  aid  he  will  have  to  pro- 
nounce and  articulate  a  great  deal,  but  repetition  can  be  often  avoided 
by  simply  pointing  to  the  distinctive  sign. 

7.  Many  a  fine  distinction  in  pronunciation  is  rendered  more 
apparent  and  effective  by  a  reference  to  this  or  that  phonetic  sign. 
Graphic  representation  holds  the  attention  and  aids  the  pupils  in 
correcting  the  pronunciation  of  their  fellows.  From  a  pedagogical 
standpoint  it  is  valuable  for  the  teacher  to  call  a  pupil  to  the  board 
and  ask,  "  Which  sounds  did  your  classmate  just  use  ?  Show  me  the 
sound  which  he  should  have  used." 

8.  In  the  rapid  reading  or  speaking  of  French  much  is  slurred 
which,  if  the  written  words  in  their  customary  spelling  confront  the 
eye,  would  not  be  read  so  glibly  even  by  the  most  proficient;  for 
example,  Qii'est-ce  que  c'est  que  cela,  etc. 


PRONUNCIATION  41 

g.  If  the  pupils  are  made  acquainted  with  the  historical  orthog- 
raphy from  the  start,  of  course  instruction  can  not  proceed  without 
rules  for  pronunciation  ;  as,  "  In  French  the  s  of  the  plural  is  silent," 
"Initial  /i  is  not  pronounced"  —  aspirate  and  mute  //  must  also  be 
explained.  In  German  likewise  one  cannot  avoid  the  rule  for  the 
pronunciation  of  d)  after  various  vowels  and  diphthongs,  etc.  These 
numerous  statements,  designed  to  make  clear  the  connection  between 
sounds  and  signs,  necessitate  an  overburdening  of  the  memory 
and  consequently  prove  an  obstruction  to  a  rapid,  unconstrained 
assimilation  of  the  foreign  language.  More  than  this,  they  lead  to 
familiarization  with  orthography  rather  than  with  pronunciation, 
although  at  the  outset  the  latter  is  of  superior  importance.  Max 
Walter  says:^  "If  the  difference  between  sound  and  orthography  is 
to  produce  no  confusion,  a  thorough  training  in  pronunciation  must 
precede  drill  in  spelling.  The  longer  we  hold  aloof  from  an  orthog- 
raphy which  is  productive  of  so  many  mistakes,  the  more  accurately 
and  rapidly  will  the  pupil  become  familiar  with  the  foreign  sounds." 

ID.  A  teacher  will  notice  that  he  unconsciously  articulates  more 
exactly  and  carefully  when  he  has  before  him  a  text  in  phonetic  tran- 
scription than  he  does  when  reading  the  customary  orthography  or 
when  repeating  it  entirely  from  memory. 

11.  Phonetic  texts  fix  definitely,  for  all  schools  in  which  they  are 
introduced,  the  minor  details  of  pronunciation  that  are  still  unsettled. 
On  account  of  the  many  pieces  which  the  Reader  contains,  it  often 
happens  that  the  teacher  himself  is  guilty  of  slight  inconsistencies  in 
pronunciation.  At  a  later  stage  this  would  be  of  little  importance,  just 
as  the  over-careful  articulation  of  the  pupils  will  also  gradually  wear 
off;  but  at  the  beginning  of  their  course  they  should  hear  the  standard 
pronunciation,  and  this  only.  To  compass  this,  one  can  hardly  be 
pedantic  enough.  If  the  same  text-book  be  used,  the  selections  of 
which  are  printed  in  a  phonetic  transcription  of  the  standard  pronun- 
ciation, successive  generations  of  pupils  can  obtain  an  almost  identi- 
cal pronunciation,  no  matter  how  often  the  teachers  change,  or  by 
what  native  dialects  the  latter  may  be  influenced. 

12.  Every  text-book  fit  for  use  contains  a  vocabulary,  and  every 
serviceable  vocabulary  indicates  the  exact  pronunciation  of  each 
word.  This  can  be  accomplished  only  by  means  of  phonetic  tran- 
scription, for  the  pupil  will  thereby  be  enabled  to  inform  himself 
of  the  pronunciation  of  new  words,  to  prepare  the  reading  of  new 

1  In  his  publication  £)er  franzbsische  Klassenimterricht  (Marburg,  iSS8). 


42  THE  TEACHING  OF  MODERN  LANGUAGES 

chapters  wliich  the  teacher  has  not  yet  presented  in  class,  and  tlius 
to  make  up  by  industry  at  home  what  has  escaped  him  because  of 
inattentiveness  during  the  recitation  period.  The  larger  lexicons 
which  he  will  later  use  indicate  the  pronunciation  of  each  word  by 
some  sort  of  phonetic  device,  and  it  is  advantageous  for  the  pupil 
to  become  early  familiar  with  the  reading  of  this  transcription. 

The  well-known  leader  among  French  phoneticians  and  spelling- 
reformers,  Paul  Passy,  employed  sound-transcription  exclusively  for  a 
year  in  the  ficole  Normale  in  Paris,  obtaining  such  excellent  results 
in  pronunciation  that  his  government  established  experimental  sta- 
tions in  three  of  the  higher  schools  of  Paris,  in  order  that  the  purely 
phonetic  method  for  first  instruction  in  English  might  receive  a 
thorough  test.  And,  if  I  am  rightly  informed,  transcription  has  also 
been  used  successfully  in  the  public  schools  of  St.  Louis,  where 
reading  and  writing  are  taught  English-speaking  children  first  of  all 
by  purely  phonetic  texts.^ 

Against  the  use  of  phonetic  transcription  the  following  arguments 
have  been  brought  forward.  I  will  enumerate  them,  although  I  do 
not  share  all  the  doubts  which  they  express. 

1.  The  best  signs  ever  invented  are  but  dead  characters,  to  which 
the  living  sound,  as  it  passes  from  the  lips  of  the  teacher  to  the  ear 
of  the  pupil,  does  not  adhere. 

2.  Considerable  time  and  much  practice  are  required  to  make 
the  pupil  conversant  with  the  sound-value  and  the  intent  of  the 
individual  signs,  to  say  nothing  about  affording  him  ease  in  their 
application. 

3.  Phonetic  transcription  means  an  overburdening  of  the  pupil 
with  material  that  must  later  be  discarded. 

4.  Which  system  of  phonetic  transcription  shall  be  adopted? 
There  are  so  many,  alas  !  And  even  the  best  of  them  all,  that  of 
the  Association  Phonetique,  is  not  without  serious  objections. 

5.  All  phonetic  systems  have  adopted,  besides  diacritical  signs, 
various  letters  of  the  native  alphabet.  With  those  familiar  signs  the 
pupil  unconsciously  associates  the  sound-value  which  they  previously 
had  for  him.  And  this  does  not  meet  the  purpose  of  the  phonetician ; 
for  if  French  qui  be  transcribed  by  ki,  groupes  by  grup^  German  oon 

^  Silver,  Burdett  &  Co.  have  published  Ward's  handy  "Phonetic  Cards,  to 
accompany  the  Rational  Method  in  Reading,"  on  which  phonetic  signs  are  printed 
in  clear  type. 


PRONUNCIATION 


43 


hy  /on,  imb  by  unt,  and  tDer  by  ver,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  pupil 
will  be  led  astray  in  his  pronunciation,  especially  by  the  vowel  signs. 

6.  If  the  pupil  use  a  phonetic  text  he  remains  quite  in  the  dark 
as  to  the  actual  formation,  the  grammatical  form,  and  the  composition 
of  any  word.  He  has  no  conception  of  endings  or  inflections,  and 
must  later  learn  much  that  is  absolutely  new  when  real  words  and 
sentences  begin  to  appear. 

7.  For  a  long  time  after  its  abandonment  phonetic  transcription 
remains  an  obstacle  to  the  proper  acquisition  of  the  conventional 
orthography.  The  greater  accuracy  and  fluency  a  pupil  has  shown 
in  reading  and  writing  phonetic  texts,  the  larger  his  percentage  of 
mistakes  in  dictations  in  historical  orthography.  He  will  be  obliged 
to  strain  every  nerve  to  forget  thoroughly  what  for  weeks  he  has 
been  so  busily  engaged  in  learning. 

Various  teachers  who  are  advocates  of  the  reform  movement  in 
all  its  essentials  have  proposed  compromises  which  are  well  worth  our 
attention. 

1.  Let  Readers  be  introduced  which  print  the  phonetic  transcrip- 
tion directly  below  the  foreign-language  text,  if  necessary,  through 
half  the  book.  After  six  months,  throw  aside  as  superfluous  these 
crutches  which  are  so  desirable  for  the  home  preparation  of  the 
pupil,  and  refer  in  all  doubtful  cases  to  the  vocabulary,  in  which  the 
pronunciation  of  each  word  is  given  in  phonetic  transcription.    Or  — 

2.  Employ  phonetic  transcription  on  the  blackboard,  and  use 
Vietor's  or  Rambeau's  phonetic  charts,  but  keep  the  reading  matter 
of  the  First  Book  free  from  phonetic  transcription.    Or  — 

3.  Let  the  first  selections  in  the  Reader  be  reproduced  in  an 
appendix  in  phonetic  transcription,  together  with  a  systematic  com- 
parison of  the  sounds,  illustrated  by  paradigms,  and  with  a  clear 
explanation  of  the  phonetic  signs.  This  course  has  been  followed 
in  Newson's  First  German  Book,  whose  phonetic  appendix  reproduces 
in  transcription  the  first  ten  sections,  and  in  Newson's  First  French 
Book,  where  the  first  thirty-six  pieces  are  printed  according  to  the 
norm  of  the  Association  Phonetique,  together  with  a  vocabulary  clas- 
sified according  to  the  grammatical  categories.  These  same  words 
again  appear  under  the  superscriptions  Les  Sons  et  leur  Sigfies, 
arranged  phonetically,  with  the  appropriate  sign  before  each.     Or  — 

4.  Instruction  in  the  first  weeks  should  be  restricted  to  oral  prac- 
tice.   Later  on  in  the  course,  after  the  use  of  books  has  been  begun, 


44  THE  TEACHING  OK   MODERN   LANGUAGES 

strict  attention  should  be  paid  that  the  pupil  apprehend  every  word 
and  sentence  first  by  ear,  that  the  word  be  correctly  pronounced  and 
orally  practiced,  before  he  be  allowed  to  open  to  the  text  and  com- 
pare the  written  word  with  the  spoken. 

If  I  may  be  allowed  to  speak  of  my  own  experience  as  teacher, 
and  mention  the  proposal  I  have  made  at  several  German  teachers' 
conferences,  I  would  recommend  for  American  schools  a  method 
which  provides  that  the  pupil  shall  not  receive  a  text-book  until  after 
about  eight  weeks  of  study,  during  which  time  the  instruction  is  exclu- 
sively oral.  When  I  was  teaching  elementary  English  in  Berlin  I  made 
a  phonetic  transcription  to  assist  pupils  in  home  preparation.  This 
transcription,  which  was  distinct  and  easily  intelligible,  reproduced, 
in  idiomatic  pronunciation  as  exactly  as  possible,  the  pieces  to  be 
practiced.  The  pupils  needed  only  to  master  this  so  far  as  to  read, 
without  difficulty -and  without  mistake,  the  texts  so  written.  After 
about  two  months  I  placed  before  them,  in  the  traditional  orthog- 
raphy, the  first  of  the  pieces  which  had  been  memorized,  gave  them 
their  books,  and  had"  a  neat  copy  of  the  piece  made.  For  the  next 
day  a  dictation  exercise  based  upon  this  piece  was  announced,  and 
the  pupils  were  asked  to  memorize  at  home  the  actual  spelling  of  the 
words.  They  were  allowed  to  correct  the  first  test  themselves,  and 
not  until  the  second  attempt  did  I  make  the  corrections  and  mark 
the  result.  I  admit  that  here  and  there  a  syllable  as  written  was 
phonetically  right  but  orthographically  wrong;  yet  I  can  maintain 
with  all  truthfulness  that  year  after  year,  as  often  as  the  experiment 
is  repeated,  I  am  agreeably  surprised  to  find  that  even  in  the  first 
tests  no  material  detriment  to  the  correct  orthography  has  resulted. 
Theoretically  it  is  quite  justifiable  to  fear  lest  a  several  weeks'  use 
of  phonetic  signs  prove  fatal  to  later  written  exercises.  But  experi- 
ence has  shown  me  again  and  again  that  this  is  merely  a  theoretical 
fear  which  the  facts  in  the  case  contradict. 

And  if  it  should  actually  happen  that  the  pupil  should  write 
preffiie  instead  of  premier,  fwa  instead  of  fois,  a  few  added  dic- 
tations will  furnish  him  with  the  desired  orthographical  accuracy. 
And  should  a  slip  in  the  spelling  of  a  foreign  language  be  regarded 
as  of  such  great  importance  ?  ^    Are  not  fineness  and  correctness  of 

1  Few  foreigners  can  boast  of  having  spoken  and  written  French  with  such 
elegance  of  expression  as  Frederick  the  Greatf  and  yet  how  many  orthographical 
mistakes  are  to  be  found  in  his  French  essays  and  poems  ! 


PRONUNCIATION  45 

pronunciation  much  more  valuable,  especially  at  the  start  ?  Uncer- 
tainty in  spelling  at  the  outset  can  be  corrected  by  exercises  in 
dictation,  but  a  pronunciation  spoiled  from  the  foundation  can  never 
be  remedied. 

Pupils  beginning  to  learn  a  foreign  language  have  a  right  to 
demand  that  it  be  taught  them  in  the  pronunciation  which  is 
regarded  by  the  educated  foreigner  as  the  standard  one.  It  may 
be  objected  that  a  certain  accent  will  always  remain  from  the  influ- 
ence of  the  mother  tongue  ;  that  linguistic  geniuses,  even  after  a 
residence  of  more  than  ten  years  among  a  foreign  people,  are  to  be 
recognized  as  foreigners  from  their  pronunciation.  But  there  is  a 
vast  difference  between  a  slight  foreign  tinge,  which  in  spite  of  the 
best  of  training  still  clings  to  the  alien  idiom,  and  the  grewsome 
mangling  of  language  so  disagreeable  to  the  ear.  If  we  cannot 
succeed  in  attaining  perfection,  we  may  still,  by  applying  the  right 
means,  obtain  good  results  and  fairly  approximate  the  ideal  goal 
of  ah  idiomatic  pronunciation. 

Long  years  of  experience  have  convinced  even  the  ablest  foreign- 
language  teachers  that  pronouncing  a  word  for  the  pupil  does  not 
lead  him  to  the  desired  goal  of  faultless  utterance.  Whenever  the 
pupil  does  not  succeed  by  simple  imitation,  he  should  receive  hints 
which  explain  the  character  of  the  most  difficult  sounds  and  render 
their  apprehension  and  reproduction  more  easy. 

Here  then  is  the  opportunity  to  apply  phonetics,  and  more  par- 
ticularly sound-physiology,  in  instruction.  The  teacher  must  have 
studied  this  science.  He  must  have  gained  from  the  literature  bearing 
upon  the  subject  ^  a  fundamental  knowledge  of  the  anatomy  of  the 
organs  of  speech,  and  of  sound-physiology,  in  order  to  know  how 
sounds  and  tones  originate  ;  how  lungs,  larynx,  vocal  cords,  uvula, 
palate,  tongue,  nose,  teeth,  and  lips  act  in  producing  the  various 
symbols  of  speech.  He  must  be  familiar  with  the  scientific  termi- 
nology of  the  phoneticians,  although  he  should  never  employ  it  in  the 
class-room.     It  has  been  advised  to  spare  the  pupils  all  explanations 

^  I  would  recommend,  of  the  publications  enumerated  above,  tiie  elementary  but 
instructive  works  of  Hoffmann,  Soames,  and  Ilempl.  Hoffmann  explains  the 
nature  of  phonetics,  the  organs  of  speech,  and  their  functions;  teaches  of  speech- 
sounds,  their  formation,  and  their  combination  in  syllables,  words,  and  sentences. 
Hempl  explains  the  nature  of  phonology  and  phonetics,  the  action  of  the  organs 
of  speech,  "  The  Physical  Basis  of  Speech,"  "  Classification  of  Sounds,"  etc.  He 
analyzes  German  speech-sounds,  and  deals  in  his  last  chapters  with  pitch  and  with 
word  and  sentence  stress. 


46  THE  TEAClllNc;   OF   MODERN   LANCiUAGES 

of  sound-physiology,  but  this  opinion  I  do  not  share.  Much  profitable 
phonetic  instruction  is  within  the  range  of  the  pupil's  comprehension 
and  arouses  in  him  a  lively  interest.  In  the  instruction  of  the  deaf 
and  dumb  the  work  of  the  phonetician  has  achieved  astonishing 
success  ;  and  it  was  sound-physiology  which  finally  enabled  deaf  and 
dumb  pupils  to  read  words  from  another's  lips  by  watching  the 
various  positions  of  teeth,  tongue,  and  lips. 


IV.    FIRST  INSTRUCTION  IN  FRENCH  AND 
GERMAN  ON  A  PHONETIC  BASIS 

An  article  by  Harnisch  in  Victor's  Phonetische  Studien^  presents 
the  subject  of  phonetics  in  so  elementary  a  way  that  the  practical 
teacher  will  not  consider  it  beyond  the  comprehension  of  his  pupils. 

"  It  is  easy  to  determine  which  organ  is  most  important  in  the 
production  of  sounds.  Every  child  knows  that  it  has  suffered  pain  in 
the  throat  (i.e.  the  larynx)  when  it  was  hoarse  and  could  not  speak. 
The  pupil  feels  the  larynx,  he  has  already  seen  it  in  animals,  and  he 
defines  it  as  the  top  part  of  the  windpipe,  a  statement  sufficiently  accu- 
rate for  school  purposes.  But  the  larynx  is  not  open  like  the  other 
parts  of  the  windpipe,  for  over  it  are  stretched  the  vocal  cords  with 
the  glottis  between.  Now  how  are  sounds  formed  in  this  apparatus  ? 
The  process  is  much  like  that  which  we  observe,  when  out  walking 
on  a  windy  day,  in  the  telegraph  wires  stretched  along  beside  the 
roads.  The  wind  sets  the  wires  vibrating  and  they  buzz,  just  as  a 
taut  cord  which  the  child  snaps  with  his  fingers  buzzes,  or  as  the 
violin  string  which  is  made  to  vibrate  by  the  bow.  But  our  larynx 
is  far  more  perfectly  constructed  than  the  telegraph  wires,  for  we  can 
arbitrarily  draw  together  and  separate  the  vocal  cords,  contract  or 
expand  the  larynx.  A  sound  can  be  formed,  however,  only  by  con- 
traction: whoever  wishes  to  whistle  must  purse  his  lips;  steam  hisses 
when  issuing  from  the  kettle  through  a  very  small  opening.  If  then 
the  wind  (i.e.  the  breath)  strikes  upon  the  contracted  vocal  cords,  it 
produces  a  buzzing  sound  ;  but  if  the  larynx  is  wide  open  the  breath 
passes  through  the  windpipe  unhindered  and  without  sound. 

"  Now  pronounce  before  the  pupils  the  voiced  tone  formed  in  the 
larynx  and  the  unvoiced  sound  made  in  the  expulsion  of  the  breath. 
Individual  pupils  repeat  the  experiment,  then  the  class  in  chorus,  and 
by  closing  the  ears  or  by  resting  the  fingers  on  the  throat  each  can 
be  convinced  that  the  voiced  tone  is  actually  produced  by  the  vibration 
of  the  vocal  cords  in  the  larynx. 

^  "  Die  Verwertung  der  Phonetik  beim  Unterrichte,"  in  Band  IV,  Ileft  3. 

47 


48  THE  TEACHING  OF  MODERN  LANGUAGES 

"All  speech-sounds  must  be  formed  on  one  of  these  two  basic  ele- 
ments —  voiced  tone  or  breath-sound  —  for  a  third  possibility  does 
not  exist.  The  pupils  will  easily  discover  that  all  sounds  accom- 
panied by  voiced  tone  are  called  voiced  sounds  (e.g.  the  s  sound  in 
de^s  or  in  the  buzzing  noise  of  bees),  the  others  unvoiced ;  and  that 
the  variety  of  existing  speech-sounds  results  from  the  fact  that  the 
two  fundamental  elements  are  modified  in  many  different  ways  by 
the  assistance  of  mouth  and  nose. 

*'  If  the  teacher  pronounce  both  kinds  of  sounds  alternatingly, 
the  pupils  will  be  glad  to  discover  that  they  are  able  to  decide  the 
nature  of  each  sound  without  difficulty.  The  sounds  as  pronounced 
are  repeated  by  individuals  and  in  chorus,  and  any  uncertainty  is  at 
once  made  clear  by  closing  the  ears.  By  such  exercises  in  class  the 
differences  between  voiced  and  unvoiced  sounds,  between  continuants 
and  stops,  become  self-evident  to  the  pupil.  The  sounds  should  be 
called  "  voiced  "  and  *'  unvoiced,"  rather  than  "  soft "  and  "  hard,"  for 
the  former  appellations  characterize  the  method  of  production  much 
more  correctly  than  do  the  latter  indistinct  and  deceiving  terms.  The 
explanations  suggested  above  can  be  made  very  clear,  and  even 
mildly  amusing.  The  material  for  observation,  and  the  examples, 
have  been  chosen  first  from  the  pupil's  mother  tongue  ;  an  inclination 
to  accuracy  in  the  formation  of  sounds  has  been  awakened  in  his 
mind,  and  the  first  important  foundation  laid  for  a  pure  pronuncia- 
tion. Then  follows  the  development  of  the  system  of  sounds  peculiar 
to  the  foreign  language  to  be  studied." 

The  teacher  who  has  studied  the  elements  of  phonetics  knows  the 
positions  of  the  organs  of  speech  when  at  rest.  He  knows  that  his 
pupils'  organs  of  speech  and  hearing  have  been  developed  in  one 
direction  only,  through  the  continual  use  of  the  mother  tongue.  In 
this  way  there  has  been  formed  a  definite  condition  or  natural  posi- 
tion of  the  organs  of  speech,  especially  of  the  tongue,  utterly  differ- 
ent from  the  disposition  of  those  of  the  foreigner.  "  In  English,"  says 
Hempl  in  his  paragraph  on  the  basis  of  articulation,  "  the  tongue, 
when  at  rest,  is  left  flat  and  allowed  to  lie  low,  being  more  or  less 
hollowed  in  front,  and  seldom  extended  to  the  teeth.  This  sluggish 
condition  of  the  tongue  favors  wide,  low,  and  mixed  vowels:  German 
has  no  such  low  vowels  as  those  in  kaf,  law,  etc.  are,  and  but  one 
mixed  vowel.  English-speaking  races  manage  their  lips  and  tongue 
quite  differently  from  the  Germans.  They  do  not  open  their  mouths 
so  wide  in  speaking.    In  sounding  the  rounded  German  vowels,  they  do 


FIRST  INSTRUCTION  ON  A  PHONETIC  BASIS 


49 


not  protrude  the  lips  as  the  Germans  do,  and  in  sounding  unrounded 
vowels  they  do  not  open  the  lips  in  a  narrow  slit  almost  to  the  very 
corners  of  the  mouth  as  is  done  by  Germans  ;  that  is,  in  both  cases 
American  children  leave  the  lips  comparatively  inactive.  This  makes 
all  English  vowels  less  clear  and  less  distinct  from  one  another  than 
the  corresponding  German  vowels  are ;  which  is  particularly  notice- 
able in  the  case  of  front  vowels.  In  English  the  tongue,  when  in 
action,  is  not  made  as  tense  as  in  German,  nor  is  it  drawn  as  far  back 
in  sounding  the  back  vowels  nor  pressed  as  far  forward  in  sounding 
the  front  vowels.  In  making  German  shut  consonants,  not  only  are 
the  parts  that  meet  more  tense,  but  not  as  much  surface  touches  ; 
this  makes  the  German  sounds  not  so  muffled  as  the  English  are  apt 
to  be." 

To  what  extent  the  basis  of  articulation  in  French  differs  from 
that  of  English  is  shown  by  Rambeau  in  his  above-mentioned  publi- 
cation.^ 

If  an  American  student  who  is  unused  to  any  language  but  English 
wishes  to  acquire  a  pure  pronunciation  of  German  or  French,  he  must 
first  learn  to  exchange  his  accustomed  basis  of  articulation  for  that 
of  the  German  or  Frenchman,  in  order  that  all  the  new  sounds  be 
produced  naturally.  Above  all  else  we  must  strive  with  our  American 
pupils  for  a  much  livelier  activity  of  the  lips,  and  in  teaching  either 
of  these  foreign  languages  continually  warn  them  :  You  must  open 
the  mouth  more  ;  you  must  round  or  protrude  the  lips  more,  etc. 
The  children  should  be  brought  to  feel  from  the  first  hour  on,  that 
foreign  words  do  not  consist  merely  of  well-known  sounds  in  new  and 
curious  combinations,  but  that  actually  new  sounds  must  be  learned 
and  practiced,  sounds  whose  production  will  often  occasion  them  no 
small  difficulty. 

During  the  first  stage  of  phonetic  instruction  with  the  aid  of  the 
accustomed  sounds  of  the  mother  tongue,  the  teacher  has  had  an 
opportunity  of  letting  the  pupils  discover  what  sounds  bring  the 
tongue,  teeth,  palate,  lips,  etc.  into  play.  The  terms  lingual,  den- 
tal, palatal,  labial,  labiodental,  guttural,  etc.  need  not  be  mentioned ; 
what  is  of  chief  importance  is  the  sound  itself  and  not  the  name  of 
it.  The  pupil  must  be  brought  to  the  point  where  he  will  under- 
stand exactly  what  is  desired  of  him  when  he  is  asked  to  use  this 
or  that  part  of  the  speech-organism  ;  to  raise  the  back  or  front  of 

i"On  the  Value  of  Phonetics  in  Teaching  Modern  Languages"  in  Victor's 
Neuere  Sprachen,  April,  1894, 


50 


THE  TEACHING  OF  MODERN   LANGUAGES 


the  tongue  towards  the  palate,  to  pronounce  a  sound  in  the  front  of 
the  mouth,  with  the  tip  of  his  tongue,  or  farther  back  with  the  uvula. 

But  after  instruction  in  the  sounds  of  the  foreign  language  has 
begun  and  the  organs  of  speech  have  been  trained,  as  it  were,  for 
the  new  idiom,  then  the  sounds  of  the  mother  tongue  should  be  kept 
as  far  away  as  possible  ;  otherwise  the  work  of  teacher  and  class  will 
be 'increased,  as  the  sure  basis  of  articulation  will  be  continually  lost. 

Everything  can  not  be  accomplished  by  merely  pronouncing  and 
expecting  imitation.  If  a  pupil  at  the  piano  continually  plays  a 
difficult  cadence  falsely  after  hearing  us  play  it  rightly,  the  desired 
result  can  not  be  obtained  before  the  cause  of  his  false  playing, 
the  faulty  fingering,  has  been  discovered  and  corrected.  Better 
still,  knowledge  should  precede  abilit}',  ba§  Bennett  foUte  bem  ^onnen 
t»orau§gef)ri.  A  simple  hint  from  sound-physiology  will  do  away  with 
the  faulty  use  of  certain  organs,  especially  of  the  tongue,  and  the 
mistake  in  pronunciation  is  removed. 

The  classification  of  foreign  sounds  as  arranged  on  phonetic  charts 
exercises,  without  doubt,  a  most  favorable  influence  upon  the  repro- 
duction of  the  sounds  by  the  pupil.  In  these  charts  the  consonants 
are  grouped  according  to  their  place  of  articulation,  and  the  vowels 
arranged  in  the  famous  vowel-triangle. 


^ard  Palate X-^- \,^Soft  Palate 

(finir  or  lit)  i  .■' 


'••^-  li  fboache  or  loup) 


.^ 


TeM      \(nez)e\^^ .._ ^y^'freaa)]  UirUla 

e   \^ . . „ .  .^  ^/h  (port} 


(laitj  e 


(la)  a 


Si  (d.me  or  hra^ 


If  we  raise  the  tongue  toward  the  hard  palate,  the  voiced  tone 
formed  in  the  larynx  sounds  as  i  (^  finir).  If  we  draw  the  tongue 
back  and  at  the  same  time  form  with  protruded  lips  a  small  circular 
opening,  we  have  the  dark  vowel-sound  in  jour  and  in  ©d^ule.  If, 
however,  the  tongue  remain  quiet  and  fiat,  with  normal  wide  open- 
ing of  the  mouth,  we  have  the  a  sound  in  ame  and  9?ame.  These 
simple  facts  justify  grouping  the  three  vowel  sounds  in  the  above 
vowel-triangle,  whose  lower  a  angle  lies  in  the  middle  of  the  flat 


FIRST  INSTRUCTION   ON  A  PHONETIC  BASIS  51 

outstretched  tongue,  whose  front  /  angle  marks  the  place  where  the 
front  of  the  tongue  approaches  the  hard  palate,  and  its  back  ii  angle 
the  place  where  the  back  part  of  the  tongue  approaches  the  soft 
palate.  Between  the  bases  of  articulation  of  a  and  /  lie  the  open 
a  sound  and  the  open  and  close  e  sounds,  and  with  a  position  of 
the  tongue  between  that  of  the  &  and  u  sounds  lie  the  open  and 
close  0  sounds.  For  the  sake  of  simplicity,  I  will  designate  open 
vowels  by  the  grave  accent  ('),  close  vowels  with  the  acute  ('). 

In  French  instruction  one  may  begin  first  with  the  d-i-u  group,  the 
three  vowel  sounds  represented  in  bras,  lit,  loup.  The  position  of  the 
organs  of  speech  necessary  for  the  production  of  these  vowels  can  be 
explained  by  the  method  so  clearly  and  simply  stated  by  Rambeau. 
Then  the  teacher  pronounces  the  vowels  with  distinct  articulation,  has 
them  repeated  by  individual  pupils  and  in  chorus  ;  after  which  exercise 
the  words  chosen  for  exemplification  are  treated  in  the  same  manner. 

As  may  be  seen  from  the  above,  the  reformers  have  restored 
speaking  in  chorus  to  an  honorable  position,  because  opportunity  for 
practice  must  be  offered  each  pupil  even  if  it  is  impossible  to  have 
each  sound  repeated  separately  by  the  forty  or  more  members  of  the 
class.  A  similar  course  is  later  pursued  in  the  repetition  and  read- 
ing aloud  of  sound-groups  and  short  sentences.  The  timid,  diffident 
pupil  thus  grows  more  venturesome,  and  comes  to  modulate  his  pro- 
nunciation according  to  that  of  the  chorus.  An  attentive  and  delicate 
ear  is  of  course  a  prerequisite  in  the  teaching  of  such  work.  The 
teacher  stands  before  his  class  as  the  conductor  before  an  orches- 
tra, always  able  to  specify  whether  it  was  the  second  violin  or  the 
first  flute  that  played  out  of  tune. 

Then  the  pupil  may  be  shown  by  means  of  the  vowel  series  i-e-e-a-d, 
{lit,  nez,  lait,  la,  due)  how  the  mouth  is  opened  wider  and  wider,  and 
the  position  of  the  lips  constantly  changed.  After  these  sounds 
have  been  practiced  in  the  way  above  indicated,  first  alone  and  then 
in  paradigms,  the  gaps  between  d  and  u  can  be  filled  up :  d-o-o-u  (the 
vowel  sounds  in  dne,  port,  feau,  bouche). 

With  the  close  e  sound  one  should  guard  against  reference  to  the 
vowel  sound  in  English  fate  or  ray,  which  is  formed  quite  -differently; 
in  the  pronunciation  of  the  open  e  sound  no  trace  of  an  /sound  must 
be  allowed  to  appear.  Further,  I  have  often  heard  it  denied  that 
Americans  spoke  the  long  b  vowel  with  an  u  after-effect,  as  undoubt- 
edly is  the  case  with  the  English  (not  merely  an  exaggeration  of 
Sweet's).    But  just  to  make  sure  of  the  matter  have  the  word  beaic 


52  Tin:    IKAClllJNCi   OF  MODERN   LANGUAGES 

pronounced,  and  even  if  the  ear  of  the  teacher  has  received  but  slight 
training  in  piionetics,  he  will  detect  something  strange  in  the  enuncia- 
tion of  the  word,  something  which  sounds  like  a  gentle  echo  of  //.  Hence 
it  cannot  be  too  strictly  insisted  on  that  the  pupils  pronounce  the 
French  vowels  as  simple  sounds,  and  with  very  distinct  articulation. 

In  practicing  the  vowel  scale  between  a  and  u  {ane  and  l>ouche), 
have  the  children  establish  the  fact  that  the  lips  are  more  and  more 
rounded  and  protruded  as  they  go  on.  And  when  finally  the  most 
difficult  vowel  sounds  are  to  be  practiced,,  like  //  in  une  and  me,  cita- 
tion of  the  fact  that  /  and  it  have  the  same  basis  of  articulation  will 
be  helpful ;  the  children  are  called  upon  to  pronounce  /  and  at  the 
same  time  to  place  the  lips  in  position  for  u.  The  resultant  sound 
will  be  the  desired  //'.  The  correct  French  ii  sound  is  often  missed 
because  the  lips  are  not  sufficiently  protruded  and  rounded  as  if  for 
whistling.  A  pencil  placed  between  the  puckered  lips  will  often  pro- 
duce the  necessary  rounding  and  closeness. 

£  and  o,  also,  are  produced  at  the  same  place  in  the  mouth  and 
with  identical  position  and  shape  of  the  tongue.  The  different  posi- 
tion of  the  lips  occasions  the  difference  in  sound.  Have  e  spoken 
and  at  the  same  time  the  lips  rounded  as  in  the  pronunciation  6,  and 
the  result  will  be  o  (ncet(d).  If  the  e  sound  is  pronounced  with  the 
lips  placed  for  o,  we  obtain  the  open  o  sound. 

The  teacher  now  practices  the  sound-scale  d-o-o-u  forwards  and 
backwards,  then  the  paradigms  due,  fleur,  nceud,  rue.  The  indistinct 
e  sound  {f)  which  occurs  in  ;«^,  te,  se,  le,  ce,  que,  the  prefix  re,  may  be 
defined  and  practiced  as  a  short  close  o  sound.  Accordingly  the 
vowel-triangle  in  its  complete  form  would  appear  as  follows : 

(fi ni r)      i  ^-      (ii^^) u  (jou r) 

(nezjKr \4-,i^r-^MefL..A  (rose) 

(laU)hsr'-^:-'--'--)"/o  (port) 


(la) 


Q,  (amej 


I  must  content  myself  with  these  simple  suggestions  regarding 
vowels,  and  for  all  that  concerns  training  in  French  diphthongs, 
nasals,  and  consonants  refer  to  the  phonetic  hints  which  the  teacher 
will  find  in  the  publications  of  Passy,  Rambeau,  and  Beyer.     As  a 


FIRST    INSTRUCTION    ON   A   PHONETIC   BASIS  53 

matter  of  practical  experience,  I  discovered  during  my  instruction  at 
the  Horace  Mann  School  that  the  distinction  between  voiced  and  un- 
voiced consonants  {?naison  and  son)  occasioned  small  trouble,  and  that 
the  reputedly  difficult  pronunciation  oi  gag7ier,  bouillir,  vieille,  bataille, 
proved  less  of  a  stumbling-block  than  did  the  French  vowels.  Even 
after  the  complete  sound-system  has  been  thoroughly  practiced  and 
reading  begun,  advocates  of  the  reform  movement  generally  open 
the  recitation-period  with  a  phonetic  drill  and  spend  a  few  min- 
utes in  the  articulation  of  single  sounds,  just  as  the  singing  master 
has  his  more  advanced  pupils  run  through  the  scale,  and  as  in  piano 
practice  finger-exercises  are  often  repeated.  Such  drill  may  be  varied 
and  made  interesting  by  taking  as  paradigms  French  Christian 
names,  systematically  classified  according  to  their  sounds,  and  at 
another  time  by  choosing  geographical  names  with  the  help  of  a  map 
of  France.  The  vowels  given  in  the  vowel-triangle,  and  the  nasals, 
are  all  represented  in  such  a  list  as  Lille,  Pyrenees,  Calais,  Marne, 
Chdlons,  Bordeaux,  Limoges,  Tours,  Na7nur,  Meuse,  Meurthe,  Le  Mans. 
Lyon,  Amiens. 

Phonetic  training  in  elementary  German  instruction  should  follow 
similar  lines,  and  abundant  suggestions  are  offered  in  the  above- 
mentioned  literary  helps,  especially  Hempl,  Victor  (^German  Pronun- 
ciation, Practice  and  Theory),  and  Hoffmann;  besides  these  I  would 
mention  Walter  Rippmann,^  Hints  on  Teaching  German  (London, 
1899)  and  A.  W.  Spanhoofd,  although  his  book,  Das  Wesentliche  der 
deutschen  Grammatik,  offers  only  a  short  phonetic  introduction. 

When  a  teacher  in  Germany  is  trying  to  train  his  pupils  in  as  pure 
a  pronunciation  of  English  as  possible,  he  tells  them  :  "  Protrude  the 
lower  jaw  somewhat ;  try  to  speak  as  far  back  in  the  mouth  as  pos- 
sible, thicken  the  tongue,  open  the  mouth  as  little  as  possible,  and 
chew  your  words."  That  is  nothing  else  than  instruction  in  putting 
the  organs  of  speech  into  the  right  position  for  speaking  English. 
Such  hints  assist  greatly  in  the  acquisition  of  an  idiomatic  pronunci- 
ation. In  like  manner  the  teacher  who  would  instruct  English-speaking 
pupils  to  pronounce  German  should  address  them  somewhat  as  fol- 
lows :  "  English  as  well  as  German  vowels  are  produced  when  the 
voiced  tone,  originating  in  the  larynx  and  passing  out  through  the 
mouth,  finds  the  organs  of  speech  wide  enough  open  for  it  to  escape 

^  Rippmann  has  also  published  two  articles  of  special  interest  to  the  teacher  of 
French:  Hints  on  Teaching  French  (London,  1898)  and  On  the  Early  Teaching 
of  French  (Macmillan's  School  World,  beginning  in  No.  i). 


54  THE  TEACHING  OF  MODERN   LANGUAGES 

without  friction.  But  the  diversity  of  sounds  in  the  various  vowels 
results  from  the  different  positions  of  tongue  and  moutli.  In  your 
native  language  the  tongue  is  far  more  active  than  in  German,  and 
the  mouth  far  less.  Therefore,  pay  particular  attention  to  the  position 
of  your  teacher's  mouth,  and  note  how  he  moves  his  lips  when  he 
pronounces  German  sounds.  When  you  imitate  them,  keep  the  tongue 
as  quiet  as  possible  :  when  you  are  pronouncing  a,  for  example,  it 
must  be  quite  flat ;  do  not  raise  it  toward  the  palate.  Try  holding  the 
tongue  down  with  your  finger  or  with  a  pencil,  just  as  the  physician 
does  when  you  have  a  sore  throat  and  he  wishes  to  look  deep  down 
into  it.  Now  pronounce  after  me  German  a  very  distinctly  and 
loudly." 

I  have  thus  shown  by  a  single  example  what  pains  the  phonet- 
ically trained  teacher  takes  to  have  his  pupils  pronounce  correctly 
the  sounds  which  are  at  first  entirely  foreign  to  them.  If  the  pupils 
have  observed  what  is  important  in  the  production  of  these  sounds, 
the  success  hoped  for  will  not  be  wanting.  We  develop  the  German 
sound-system  with  the  pupils  as  we  have  done  above  in  the  case  of 
French.  We  pass  around  the  vowel-triangle  and  practice  the  various 
series  of  sounds:  a-i-u;  u-i-a  ;  a-d-e-i ;  i-e-d-a ;  a-^o {^qxx\)-6 (^i\t)-u ; 
u-o-b-a  ;  a-d-o-ii ;  i'l-d-'d-a  ;  i-i'i-u  ;  n-u-i ;  e-'o-o  ;  o-'o-e ;  d-'d-b ;  b-'d-d, 

I  should  perhaps  have  mentioned  in  my  discussion  of  French  vow- 
els that  the  short  vowels  must  be  drilled  as  well  as  the  long  ones, 
and  in  German  it  is  to  be  especially  noted  that  the  short  sounds  are 
much  more  open  than  the  long  sounds.  We  must  then  actually 
practice  a  close  and  an  open  /,  a  close  and  an  open  ?V,  a  close  and  an 
open  «,  etc.,  as  the  following  examples  sufficiently  illustrate  :  Stil, 
ftiU,  Sriiber,  §utte,  Sruber,  SI'Jutter.  After  the  German  vowels  and 
diphthongs  have  been  practiced  alone  and  in  paradigms,  repetition  in 
following  recitation-periods  may  be  varied  and  rendered  more  inter- 
esting by  proper  names  taken  from  history,  or  by  geographical  names 
read  from  the  map.  Here  follow  a  few  groups,  classified  systematically 
according  to  the  vowel  series : 

j^-riebrid)  Sd^ifler,  %\)zxz\t,  SBerrter,  M\\)Z,  Slgat^e,  §an§,  ^onrab, 
SDora,  Sutler,  33runo,  SRUbiger,  HJ^ittler,  ©oet^e,  Corner. 

SBien,  ^nn,  2Befer,  §effen,  3Jia{)ren,  i^drntf)en,  33afel,  Hamburg, 
3fJoftodE,  2}onau,  lllm,  3Rul)r,  2:i)uringen,  ^iind)en,  5lbfen,  ^iirfelberg. 

3J^ain,  Sapern,  2Beimar,  SJleijer,  5Reu^,  §aufer,  Soi^enburg,  ^aufi^, 
^reSlau, 


FIRST    INSTRUCTION    ON   A   PHONETIC   BASIS  55 

In  the  last  series  I  have  attempted  by  the  juxtaposition  of  the 
same  sounds  in  differing  orthography  to  indicate  that  ax,  at),  ei, 
ex),  have  exactly  the  same  sound,  although  this  will  be  denied  by 
South  Germans,  who  distinguish  between  2nib  (loaf  of  bread)  and 
£eib  (body).  According  to  Victor  and  the  resolutions  of  the  Con- 
gress for  Pronunciation  which  met  at  Berlin  in  1898,  such  a  dis- 
tinction is  no  more  admissible  than  a  corresponding  distinction  in 
the  pronunciation  of  the  eu  sound,  whether  it  be  orthographically 
represented  by  eu,  an,  or  oi. 

It  cannot  be  emphasized  strongly  enough  that  the  pupil  must  not 
try  to  get  along  with  the  sounds  of  his  mother  tongue,  but  that  he 
must  change  the  position  of  his  organs  of  speech  for  the  new  sounds, 
and  under  the  guidance  of  his  teacher  train  them  with  this  end  in 
view.  The  teacher  should  not  allow  vowel  sounds  to  be  pronounced 
as  exact  equivalents  in  nie  and  A/ice,  in  Sief)  and  ray,  in  mir  and  mere, 
in  ,§irt  and  d/r/,  in  (J^re  and  air,  in  <qcxx  and  /ler,  in  fo  and  so,  in  D§r 
and  ore,  in  bll  and  t/o,  in  %u\i  and  food.  He  must  not  allow  the 
vowel  of  the  final  syllable  in  such  words  as  ^apa,  2lnna,  S)oftor,  to 
be  spoken  as  a  very  weak,  indefinite,  and  colorless  sound  after  the 
English  analogy.  Let  him  demonstrate  to  the  children  that  the  Ger- 
man r  sound,  in  contrast  with  the  English,  is  not  combined  with  the 
preceding  vowel,  is  to  be  spoken  by  itself,  is  to  be  produced  by  vibra- 
tions of  the  uvula,  and  hence  can  exercise  no  influence  upon  the 
pronunciation  and  coloring  of  the  preceding  vowel. 

The  teacher  whose  ear  has  been  phonetically  trained  will  under- 
stand the  too  open  pronunciation  of  his  English-speaking  pupils  when 
dealing  with  the  /  and  u  sound  (id^  bin  bie  SRulter).  He  will  know 
too  that  the  German  diphthongs,  ei,  au,  eu  or  oi,  are  pronounced  very 
differently  from  the  corresponding  English  sounds.  It  does  not  suf- 
fice that  German  eu  or  au  be  pronounced  as  oy  in  oyster.  One  might 
as  well  allow  in  the  pronunciation  of  the  indefinite  vowel-sound  in  Ger- 
man prefixes  and  unaccented  syllables  (©ebet,  Seben,  ©ebanfen,  betritbcn) 
the  corresponding  English  sound  in  falkn,  endeavor,  rMuce.  If  care- 
ful attention  be  but  paid  to  the  real  German  pronunciation  of  the  first 
vowel  element  of  the  diphthongs  mentioned,  the  desired  results  will 
follow. 

Many  a  pedantic  German  teacher  who  wishes  to  be  more  orthodox 
than  the  Pope  believes  it  his  duty  to  have  intervocalic  I)  pronounced 
(fef)en,  jiel)en,  blitljcn),  while  the  phoneticians  on  the  other  hand  teach 
that  {)  between  vowels  is  absolutely  silent,  but  that  in  compound 


56  Tin-:  TEACHING   OF   MODERN    LANGUAGES 

words,  as  in  .v»oI)Cit,  where  English-speaking  children  show  a  decided 
inclination  to  let  it  fall,  it  must  be  distinctly  heard.  Do  not  attempt 
to  have  final  b  or  b  pronounced  voiced  as  they  are  written,  but  as  / 
and  /:  unb  (//«/),  2c\\)  i^Lcip),  ©olb  (C^//),  2Beib  {Wcif),  §clb  <^HeIf). 

In  the  pronunciation  of  the  German  ro  do  not  allow  the  English 
character  to  exercise  any  influence,  nor  the  pupils  to  be  confused  by 
the  printed  sign  ;  uncber  is  to  be  spoken  with  initial  v,  not  with  initial 
;/ ;  in  such  a  word  as  fdjUiarj,  the  pupil  may  just  as  well  believe  that 
it  is  written  fl)iiart§. 

Nowhere  is  historical  orthography  a  greater  hindrance  than  in  the 
pronunciation  of  German  §.  If  the  teacher  cannot  decide  to  make 
general  use  of  phonetic  transcription,  let  him  in  this  one  case  at  least 
recommend  that  the  pupils  jot  down  a  ts  at  every  j  of  their  printed 
texts,  and  practice  industriously  in  the  few  minutes  devoted  to  pho- 
netic drill  such  sound-exercises  as  groangig  Beifige  srcitfdjern  luftig  in 

ben  3tt5eis^"* 

Unusual  difficulty  is  occasioned  by  the  ch  sounds  in  \^  and  ac^. 
First  let  them  be  practiced  alone,  at  the  same  time  indicating  the 
exact  place  of  production;  the  consonant  sound  in  id^  as  far  front 
in  the  mouth  as  possible,  in  od^  far  back  at  the  uvula;  reference 
to  the  similar  sound  in  Scotch  loch,  or  even  the  imitation  of  snoring, 
might  prove  profitable.  The  former  sound,  produced  in  the  front 
of  the  mouth,  appears  quite  naturally  after  German  front  vowels, 
and  the  latter,  whose  place  of  articulation  lies  far  back,  only  after 
back  vowels.  This  will  be  perfectly  intelligible  to  the  pupils.  Then 
denote  by  a  heavy  line  passing  through  the  vowel-triangle  the  bound- 
ary between  the  two  pronunciations : 


Many  other  matters  of  detail  in  the  pronunciation  of  German  can- 
not here  be  discussed.  For  these  one  should  read  in  Victor,  Hempl, 
Soames,   and   Rippmann  how  to  treat  the  pronunciation  of  ng,  so 


FIRST    INSTRUCTION    ON   A   PHONETIC    BASIS  57 

that  finger  shall  not  sound  like  fiiiger;  what  is  to  be  heeded  in  the 
articulation  of  qu ;  how  much  lighter,  simpler,  and  smoother  the  Ger- 
man I  sounds  than  the  thick  English  /,  which  is  produced  deeper  in 
the  mouth,  and  in  whose  production  the  tongue  is  much  more  active. 
That  initial  [t  and  fp  are  to  be  pronounced  shp  and  sht  has  been 
already  stated.  With  regard  to  this  latter  question,  compare  August 
Dietrich's  Uber  die  Aussprache  von  sp,  st,  g  iind  ng.  Ein  Wort  zur 
Verstandigung  zwischen  Nord  tmd  Si'id  (Leipzig). 

The  pronunciation  of  medial  and  final  g  is  still  an  open  question, 
and  one  need  not  be  too  pedantic  regarding  r,  for  in  the  every-day 
conversation  of  educated  Germans  the  uvular  r  is  ordinarily  heard, 
while  in  rhetorical  utterance  and  on  the  stage  the  trilled  r  is  more 
customary.  Even  in  the  most  recent  edition  of  his  famous  pamphlet 
Wie  ist  die  Aussprache  des'Deutschen  zu  lehren  ?  Victor  allows  ©iege, 
belrogen,  3Bagen,  mbgen  to  be  pronounced  both  with  the  usual  g  sound 
and  with  voiced  J  (voiced  guttural  fricative)  ;  ©ieg,  Xag,  3^9/  both 
with  final  k  (©ief,  %al,  ^uf)  and  with  the  unvoiced  Scotch  ch  sound 
(©ied),  %a6:^,  8"d;). 

As  a  final  point  in  the  discussion  of  pronunciation  I  would  touch 
upon  the  glottal  stop,  which  does  not  exist  in  French  and  is  not  vigor- 
ously spoken  in  English.  Hempl  defines  it  as  follows  :  "  The  glottal 
stop  is  produced  by  stopping  the  breath  in  the  throat  and  exploding 
it  there,  as  one  often  does  in  making  an  unusual  effort,  as  in  pushing. 
It  is  generally  employed  in  German  before  initial  stressed  vowels  : 
'id),  'aud^,  'alle,  iBanb'uI)r,  'ab'dnbern,  but  Germans  never  write  it 
and  are  generally  unaware  of  its  existence.  In  books  on  phonetics 
it  is  sometimes  expressed  by  '  as  above." 

After  the  principal  difficulties  of  German  pronunciation  have  been 
discussed  in  class,  and  the  pupils  are  familiar  with  the  foreign 
sounds,  an  occasional  reference  to  the  phonetic  charts  will  suffice  to 
recall  what  has  been  emphasized  during  the  first  recitation-periods 
regarding  the  articulation  of  individual  sounds. 

In  my  review  of  French  phonetic  instruction  I  presented  the  vowel 
system  in  tabular  form,  and  I  will  submit  the  German  consonants 
to  a  similar  arrangement.  The  pupils  must  know  that  in  the  produc- 
tion of  consonants  the  breath,  by  a  contraction  of  the  organs  of 
speech,  or  by  their  more  or  less  vigorous  contact,  escapes  with  a 
grating  sound  (s,  z,  f,  7>)  or  with  a  weak  or  strong  explosive  sound 
{b,  /,  g,  k).  In  the  former  case  we  speak  of  fricatives,  in  the  latter 
of   stops.     If  the  voice   be   heard  with   the    sound,  whether    it  be 


58  THE  TEACH  INt^.   OF  MODERN   LANGUAGES 

produced  at  the  lips,  the  teeth,  or  the  palate,  we  have  voiced  con- 
sonants. But  if  the  vocal  cords  remain  open,  as  in  expiration,  so 
that  they  produce  no  tone,  and  consequently  nothing  but  the  sound 
produced   in   the  mouth  is  audible,  we   have   unvoiced   consonants 

In  the  accompanying  table  the  German  sounds  are  represented  — 
(i)  in  the  vertical  columns  according  to  the  place  of  articulation; 
(2)  in  the  horizontal  columns  according  to  \.\\cforfn  of  articulation, 
the  breath  passage  being 

(a)  completely  closed,  or 

(b)  considerably  ?iarrotc>ed,  or 

(c)  left  comparatively  o/>cn. 

Characters  representing  voiced  sounds  are  denoted  by  a  dot  above 
the  consonant  in  question,  as  b,  S,  li),  g,  etb. 


FIRST   INSTRUCTION  ON  A  PHONETIC  BASIS 


59 


a 

rn 

«< 

C 

rt 

O 

o 

r/) 

o! 

rt 

rrl 

o 

O 

X 

d 

W 

«j 

tfi 

a 

C 

)-i 

-) 

<u 

0 

O 

C/) 

c 

H 

o 

K 
H 

a- 
o 

o 

5 

3 

w 

H 
<! 
_) 

<; 

[I. 
o 
in 

a 

s-» 
•S5 

c 
}-> 
o 

•«ss 
•W     C 

Back  Consonants 

2oc^      1      fagen 
voiceless   1      voiced 

B      3 

<4-l 
O 

c 
.2 

}-< 

w 
< 
<; 

Q 

<; 

Front  Consonants 
voiceless   ;      voiced 

Si      ci 

3      C 

^^     3 
®     o 

tot  (©fire) 

(vibration  of 

tongue  point) 

•it!    w 

t3 

3     ^ 

•S   ^ 

With  Closure 
(Stopped  Consonants) 

(b) 
With  Narrowing 
(Narrow  Consonants) 

w 

V.  THE  ANALYTICAL-INDUCTIVE 
METHOD 

The  first  two  weeks  will  suffice  to  put  foreign-language  instruction 
on  the  phonetic  basis  presented  in  the  previous  chapter.  The  first 
period  is  ample  for  instruction  in  the  organs  of  speech  and  their 
functions,  with  examples  taken  from  the  sounds  of  the  mother 
tongue.  In  the  second  period  the  dififerences  in  the  way  of  produc- 
ing sounds  in  the  new  language  are  illustrated,  and  the  French  or 
German  system  of  vowels  virtually  constructed.  The  third  period 
serves  for  repetition  and  practice  of  paradigms.  In  the  fourth  the 
vowel  system  is  completed,  and  the  pupils  are  familiarized  with  the 
phonetic  chart,  or,  if  such  charts  are  not  at  the  teacher's  disposal, 
with  the  vowel-triangle  reproduced  on  the  blackboard.  In  the  fifth 
period  the  diphthongs  and  nasal  vowels  are  added.  The  sixth  and 
seventh  (and  perhaps  the  eighth)  suffice  for  the  study  of  consonants, 
regarding  which  much  has  already  been  learned  while  practicing  the 
assigned  paradigms.  Those  who  introduce  phonetically  transcribed 
texts  must,  of  course,  devote  further  time  to  drill  on  transcription.  If 
the  number  of  pupils  in  the  class  is  not  too  large,  if  the  ability  of  the 
children  and  the  skill  of  the  teacher  are  of  the  average  grade,  practice 
on  the  first  reading-piece  can  begin  with  the  third  week. 

I  need  scarcely  mention  the  fact  that  this  preliminary  course  in 
pronunciation  can  be  more  quickly  and  successfully  finished  with 
younger  pupils  than  with  older.  The  earlier  a  child  takes  up  a  for- 
eign language,  the  more  adaptable  will  his  organs  of  speech  be,  the 
more  surely  will  the  teacher  succeed  in  obtaining  an  accurate  imitation 
of  the  sounds  and  sound-groups  pronounced,  the  less  instruction  will 
he  find  necessary  regarding  the  position  of  the  organs  of  speech. 
The  older  beginners  are,  the  more  accustomed  are  their  organs  to  the 
sounds  of  the  mother  tongue,  the  more  unwieldy  for  training  in  the 
articulation  of  foreign  sounds.  And  to  this  natural  awkwardness 
must  be  added  the  embarrassment  so  evident  in  older  pupils.  But 
the  child  of  ten  years  or  less  endeavors  with  the  greatest  naivete  to 
imitate  exactly  every  peculiarity  of  the  foreign  sounds. 

60 


THE  ANALYTICAL-INDUCTIVE  METHOD  6l 

The  paradigms  should  be  oftentimes  varied.  Variety  is  the  spice 
of  life.  In  addition  to  the  names  of  persons  and  places  suggested 
in  Chapter  IV,  foreign  words  for  the  things  which  the  pupil  sees  in 
the  class-room  may  be  chosen  as  suitable  material.  In  this  way  he 
becomes  acquainted  during  the  first  two  weeks  of  French  instruction 
with  such  expressions  as  po?-te,  fenetre,  chaise,  table,  banc,  livre,  cahier, 
plume,  crayon,  papier,  encre.  At  another  time  the  teacher  chooses  the 
parts  of  the  body  as  paradigms  for  pronunciation.  And  apparently 
without  intention,  but  really  with  a  view  to  systematic  increase  of 
the  student's  vocabulary,  he  employs  in  the  first  class-periods  such 
expressions  as  bicn,  prononcez,  repetez,  eiicore  une  fois,  la  classe,  levez- 
vous,  asseyez-vous,  fermez  vos  livres,  ouvrez  vos  cahiers,  donne-moi  tofi 
livre,  ouvre  la  fenetre,  ferme  la  porie,  attentio7i,  la  lefon  est finie.  These 
phrases,  at  first  translated  by  the  teacher,  are  soon  quite  familiar  to 
the  class.  At  each  new  period  a  few  of  this  sort  are  added  and 
retained,  even  though  they  are  not  written  on  the  board  or  memorized 
as  a  vocabulary.  Such  expressions  gradually  supplant  the  mother 
tongue  in  the  instruction,  and  form  the  first  steps  of  the  path  which 
leads  to  the  ideal  towards  which  we  must  of  set  purpose  continually 
strive  :  to  teach  the  foreign  language  through  the  medium  of  the  for- 
eign language.  It  is  of  greatest  value  to  idiomatic  pronunciation 
that  mouth  and  ear  be  not  continually  concerned  with  the  mother 
tongue  in  addition  to  the  foreign.  And  I  would  add :  bring  your 
pupils  as  much  and  as  early  as  possible  into  the  foreign  environment. 
In  the  first  week  let  the  teacher  of  German  greet  his  class  with  the 
words  ©utett  9!}?orgett,  ^^tnber.  The  class  will  be  eager  to  learn  the 
reply.  Expressions  such  as  fpricf)  laitter ;  jprirf)  bcutlidjcr ;  bav3  ift  ri(^= 
tig ;  'i)(x^  ift  fal[d) ;  iver  uieif5  c^  beffer  ?  Derfteljft  bu  midj  ?  !oinm  an  bte 
%o!\t\,  Ttititm  bie  ^reibe;  linfd)  "^^^  treg,  should  be  used,  but  not 
pedantically  analyzed.  When  it  comes  to  spelling  let  the  French  or 
German  names  of  the  letters  be  used.  But  let  it  not  be  forgotten 
that  the  sounds  are  the  starting-point  of  instruction,  and  not  the 
alphabet  with  its  letters. 

If  a  French  or  German  atmosphere  is  to  envelop  the  children  com- 
pletely in  their  study  of  the  foreign  language,  the  questions  may  be 
addressed  to  them  under  French  or  German  names,  and  the  younger 
children  especially  will  gain  much  pleasure  if  Dorothy  Taylor  is 
called  in  the  German  period  2)orotI)ea  ©djneibcr,  or  John  Carpenter 
in  the  French  hour  Jean  Charpe^itier.  And  they  will  be  found  very 
ready  to  continue  with  one  another  the  use  of  such  foreign  phrases. 


62  THE  TEACHING  OF   MODERN   LANGUAGES 

Wherever  a  room  is  set  apart  for  foreign-language  teaching  it 
should  be  suitably  decorated.  In  a  French  class-room  the  children 
should  see  on  the  walls  the  map  of  France  and  a  plan  of  Paris, 
typical  scenes  of  life  in  the  capital,  and  portraits  of  national  heroes 
and  statesmen ;  in  a  German  class-room,  maps  of  Germany  and 
Prussia,  a  plan  of  Berlin,  characteristic  pictures  of  rural  landscapes, 
and  likenesses  of  the  great  men  of  affairs.  Often  then,  when  the 
pupil's  attention  begins  to  flag,  the  teacher  can  refer  to  one  or 
another  of  these  pictures  which  has  some  connection  with  the  day's 
lesson,  and  such  apparent  digressions  can  be  made  linguistically 
profitable. 

This  may  even  be  done  with  the  introduction  to  the  first  German 
reading-piece,  the  study  of  which  begins  with  the  third  week.  For 
thus  early  do  we  busy  the  pupils  with  connected  reading  matter, 
instead  of  with  disconnected  sentences,  w'hose  thought-content  —  if 
there  be  any  —  has  been  patched  together  of  the  most  heterogene- 
ous materials.  Naturally  the  first  piece  must  be  elementary  in  nature. 
It  should  be  as  easy  of  comprehension  with  regard  to  its  subject- 
matter  as  it  is  linguistically  simple.  And  it  must  be  short,  at  most 
five  or  six  printed  lines,  so  that  a  study  which  proceeds  step  by  step 
may  not  weary  the  class  and  arrest  its  progress  too  long. 

The  reformers  have  often  heard  the  reproach  that  they  swamp  the 
young  beginner  with  a  veritable  flood  of  difficulties,  presenting  as 
they  do  in  a  single  piece  so  much  grammatical  material.  But  is  this 
reproach  justified  ?  Everything  new  is  at  first  equally  hard  for  the 
pupil.  He  acquires  the  most  difficult  form  of  a  French  irregular 
verb  with  as  great  ease  as  he  learns  le  mur  =  the  wall.  But  these 
first  reading  pieces  should  be  kept  as  free  as  possible  from  uncom- 
mon linguistic  phenomena,  irregularities,  and  syntactical  deviations 
from  English  usage. 

In  order  to  offer  simple  material  and  to  increase  the  difficulties 
slowly  and  systematically,  I  recommend  that  the  chosen  texts  be 
edited  —  with  skill  and  tact,  of  course  —  in  such  a  way  as  to  sim- 
plify, though  not  do  violence  to,  the  expression.  Charming  stories, 
even  from  the  standpoint  of  diction,  may  be  written  without  subordi- 
nate clauses.  And  one  can  even  smuggle  in  a  certain  amount  of 
suitable  material  for  that  chapter  of  the  grammar  which  is  to  be 
illustrated  by  the  piece  in  question. 

Even  if  the  content  be  simple  it  need  not  be  exactly  childish,  and 
I  should  not  recommend  such  "  text-books  for  beginners  "  as  deal  with 


THE  ANALYTICAL-INDUCTIVE  METHOD  63 

nursery  rhymes,  riddles,  and  stories  of  the  play-room.  It  is  almost 
self-evident  from  what  field  the  material  for  these  first  tales  should 
be  chosen.  They  should  awaken  an  understanding  of  the  people 
and  country  whose  language  is  to  be  studied.  And  what  is  it,  among 
all  the  facts  of  French  and  German  history,  that  most  attracts  the 
young  mind  ?  The  magic  force  of  personality.  The  personality 
which  is  placed  in  the  foreground  of  the  first  story  must  assuredly 
be  imposing.  One  of  the  best  and  most  popular  of  recent  French 
text-books  for  German  schools  ^  begins  with  the  following  anecdote, 
which  satisfies  almost  all  the  above-mentioned  demands  :  Un  jour, 
avant  luie  bataille,  Henri  quatre  dit  a  ses  soldats  les  mots :  Je  suis  voire 
rot,  vous  etes  Francais,  voila  Vamemi.  Si  vous  pcrdez  vos  e?iseignes, 
regardez  vion  panache,  il  sera  toujours  sur  le  chemin  de  rhotmeiir  et  de 
la  victoire. 

Simple  as  this  short  historical  anecdote  is,  the  children  cannot 
feel  that  they  are  being  bored  with  worthless  nonsense.  Henry  IV 
was  and  is  a  French  national  hero.  Let  his  portrait  be  shown  the 
class,  and  the  supplementary  phrase  //  etait  roi  de  France  added  by 
the  teacher.  With  very  easy  and  short  French  sentences,  which  do. 
not  need  to  be  especially  practiced,  the  teacher  points  to  the  por- 
trait, to  the  map  of  France,  to  the  capital  where  Henry  IV  resided ; 
he  may  perhaps  show  Navarre,  and  the  battle-field  of  Ivry,  where 
the  above  exhortation  is  said  to  have  been  delivered.  In  this  way 
an  interest  in  the  first  piece  and  its  hero  has  been  aroused,  and 
the  foundation  laid  for  an  understanding  of  the  thought-content. 
Drill  on  the  piece  then  takes  place  in  the  following  manner:  the 
books  are  closed,  the  teacher  pronounces  the  phrases  slowly  and 
with  very  distinct  articulation,  and  determines  the  meaning  of  each 
individual  word.  Then  he  reads  the  French  text  through  again,  and 
has  it  repeated  by  the  most  skillful  pupils,  and  by  the  class  in  chorus. 
In  this  way  during  the  period  half  of  the  piece  is  so  thoroughly  prac- 
ticed that  the  pupils  have  it  fairly  well  memorized  when  at  the  close 
of  the  recitation  the  books  are  opened  and  the  printed  characters 
confront  the  eye. 

To  strengthen  the  understanding  and  to  offer  more  object-matter 
for  the  first  chapter  of  grammar  the  teacher  should  retell  the  story, 
using  simple  French  sentences  in  which  the  words  of  our  text 
reappear  in  new  linguistic  or  grammatical  relations  to  each  other. 
These  sentences  can  then  be  translated  into  the  student's  mother 

^  O.  MWixi&i,  Elenufitarbuch  der  franzdsischen  Sprache,  Ausgabe  B,  Berlin,  1901. 


64  iiiK  ti:al"iii\g  of  inkjdkkn  languages 

tongue  and  repeated  by  him.  It  is  very  simple  by  means  of  such  a 
text  to  obtain  the  present  tense  of  ctrt\  for  the  teacher  in  pointing 
to  the  portrait  of  the  king  uses  the  expression  Vhomme  est  Henri 
quaire^  the  story  itself  introduces  the  forms  je  suis  and  vous  etes,  and 
during  the  instruction  of  the  first  five  weeks  expressions  like  Jious 
sommcs  a  Vecole  and  tu  es  un  eleve  have  probably  been  used.  In  the 
French  sentences  which  retell  the  piece,  and  which  in  Ulbrich's  book 
follow  the  text,  occurs  the  phrase  les  Fran^ais  sont  sur  le  cheniin  de 
rhonneur,  or  les  soldats  du  roi  sont  sur  le  cheinin  de  la  victoire.  Hence 
after  studying  anecdote  and  sentences  it  is  easy  to  group  on  the 
blackboard  six  sentences  which  contain  the  desired  system,  je  suis, 
tu  es,  il  est,  nous  S07}i7nes,  vous  etes,  ils  sont. 

It  may  also  seem  to  many  teachers  absolutely  necessary  to  discuss 
declension  at  the  outset.  It  is  well  known  that  there  is  no  real 
nominal  inflection  in  French,  but  the  grouping  of  la  victoire,  de  la 
victoire,  a  la  victoire,  la  victoire,  can  be  made  without  difficulty  if  the 
student  be  referred  to  de  Vhonnetir  and  a  ses  soldats. 

And  the  piece  offers  object-material  for  the  three  forms  of  the 
definite  article,  as  well  as  for  both  forms  of  the  indefinite  article. 
Nouns  are  presented  in  the  singular  and  the  plural,  as  are  alsp  a  few 
important  verbal  forms  and  the  possessives  ses,  mon,  votre,  vos. 
These  should  be  carefully  memorized,  and  later,  when  similar  or 
homogeneous  forms  occur,  the  memory  of  the  earlier  occurrences 
can  be  revived,  to  serve  as  necessary  steps  in  the  construction  of 
grammar.  But  it  would  be  inadvisable  to  place  every  individual 
word  of  this  short  story  under  the  critical  microscope,  to  lay  stress 
upon  the  antithesis  implied  in  arafit  or  upon  dit  as  an  irregular 
verb,  or  to  make  use  of  //  sera  as  the  starting-point  for  a  drill  on  the 
future  tense. 

Since  Ulbrich,  as  has  been  already  mentioned,  is  a  "  moderated 
reformer,"  there  follow  in  his  text-book,  after  the  series  of  French 
sentences,  about  a  dozen  phrases  in  the  mother  tongue,  which  the 
pupil  is  to  translate  at  home  and  thus  discover  whether  he  has  prop- 
erly mastered  the  grammatical  part  of  the  chapter.  Victor  will  not 
listen  to  the  inclusion  of  such  exercises,  and  I  believe  that  even  the 
"  moderated  reformers "  will  drop  this  translating  into  the  foreign 
language  the  moment  that  exercises  and  themes  are  no  longer 
demanded  by  the  authorities  as  tests  of  knowledge. 

We  lay  much  greater  stress  upon  the  questions  in  the  foreign 
language  about  the  content  of  the  piece.    These  are  not  intended 


THE  ANALYTICAL-INDUCTIVE   METHOD  65 

to  "put  the  teacher  under  tutelage."  On  the  contrary,  he  is  entirely 
justified  in  conversing  with  pupils  in  his  own  way  regarding  the 
subject-matter  of  the  text.  But  by  these  questions  appended  to  each 
lesson  the  pupil  becomes  conversant  with  the  use  of  the  interroga- 
tives  and  with  French  interrogative  word-order.  He  can  have  the 
questions  read  to  him  at  home  and  thus  recapitulate  the  conver- 
sation held  in  class.  And  they  afford  him  a  foundation  for  profitable 
written  exercises  consisting  of  French  answers  to  French  questions. 

Initial  drill  in  the  first  reading  piece  must  also  furnish  an  intro- 
duction to  correct  word  and  sentence  accent.  Just  as  the  first 
sentence  of  the  text  formed  the  starting-point  for  grammatical 
instruction,  it  now  gives  an  opportunity  to  refer  to  the  essential 
differences  between  English  and  French  accent.  The  stress  on  the 
final  syllable  of  words  should  not  be  exaggerated  too  much,  as  the 
pupils  will  then  experience  difficulty  in  holding  the  word-stress  in 
abeyance  for  the  sake  of  the  principal  accent  at  the  end  of  the  sen- 
tence, the  so-called  sentence-stress.  Let  the  teacher  insist  on  the 
pupil's  raising  his  voice  sharply  at  the  comma  which  closes  the 
introductory  clause,  thus  producing  the  singsong  effect  so  character- 
istic of  spoken  French. 

Those  teachers  who  are  seriously  concerned  in  obtaining  a  solid 
foundation  in  correct  pronunciation  and  delivery  have  drilled  the 
first  sentence  until  the  class  has  thoroughly  memorized  it.  It  has 
been  translated  piece  by  piece  and  as  a  whole,  enunciated  by  the 
teacher  and  by  the  class,  read  aloud  and  again  repeated  by  the  class, 
and  the  retelling  of  the  text  in  new  words  has  caused  these  individual 
vocables  in  their  proper  signification  to  become  the  actual  intellectual 
property  of  the  pupil,  so  that  he  knows  how  to  interpret  them  aright, 
even  if  they  appear  in  new  connection.  The  new  method  abandons 
exact  memorization  of  words,  formerly  so  universally  demanded:  the 
pupils  learn  them  by  actual  use,  for  the  most  part  in  the  class-room. 
And  if  the  teacher  wishes  to  discover  the  actual  size  of  a  pupil's 
vocabulary,  let  him  not  attempt  a  stupid  rehearsing  of  words  that 
occurred  in  former  periods,  but  let  him  converse  with  his  class  in  the 
foreign  language.  This  has  the  advantage  of  obliging  the  pupil  to 
employ  certain  forms  of  desired  words  in  definite  grammatical  con- 
nection. By  the  way  in  which  he  puts  a  question  the  teacher  can 
require  an  answer  that  will  give  him  an  insight  into  the  pupil's 
familiarity  with  the  words  and  his  understanding  of  the  grammatical 
rules. 


66  THE  TEACHING  OF   MODERN   LANGUAGES 

In  spite  of  this  the  "  moderated  reformers  "  have  not  done  away 
with  the  vocabulary  note-books  wliich  from  time  immemorial  have 
been  in  use  in  German  schools.  On  the  contrary  we  lay  great  stress 
on  the  careful  keeping  of  neat  word-lists,  and  have  the  first  entries 
made  under  our  personal  supervision.  From  time  to  time  these 
note-books  are  called  in  and  corrected  just  as  carefully  as  are  the 
written  exercises  or  the  dictations.  The  word-list  is  for  our  pupils, 
from  the  lowest  grades  on,  a  savings-bank  in  which  every  newly 
acquired  coin  is  carefully  stored  away. 

In  the  retelling  of  the  texts,  in  the  questions  put  by  the  teacher, 
and  in  other  exercises,  the  use  of  words  not  occurring  in  the  set 
pieces  cannot  be  entirely  avoided.  During  the  first  weeks,  when 
other  matters  are  of  supreme  importance,  many  words  and  examples 
are  used  and  translated  without  being  too  carefully  memorized. 
Gradually,  however,  attention  is  directed  toward  the  acquisition  of  a 
trustworthy  vocabulary,  and  the  teacher  writes  new  words  with  their 
meanings  upon  the  blackboard,  in  order  that  at  the  close  of  the  period 
the  pupil  may  enter  them  in  his  word-lists.  These  carefully  kept 
note-books  should  accompany  the  pupil  through  the  school  course  as 
unfailingly  as  does  his  First  Book.  In  them  the  pupil  is  concerned 
with  nothing  but  the  primitive  form  of  the  word.  To  apply  and  prac- 
tice the  other  forms  is  the  duty  of  the  exercises  in  conversation. 
We  no  longer  need  to  run  through  the  declensions  and  conjugations 
—  once  the  greatest  delight  of  teachers. 

From  Max  Walter's  book  on  French  class-instruction  we  learn  how 
to  practice  without  stupid  manipulation  the  cases  of  nouns  and  pro- 
nouns, the  persons,  number,  tenses,  and  modes  of  verbs  ;  how  to  bring 
life  and  activity  into  the  class-room.  Must  we  forever  declaim 
Je  me  siiis  defe/idii,  tu  fes  defendu^  il  s^est  defendu,  thus  remaining  in 
the  grip  of  a  method  so  conducive  to  deplorable  mistakes  in  accent  ? 
May  we  not  preferably  offer  a  short  dialogue  containing  all  the  forms, 
the  presentation  and  practice  of  which  we  wish  to  insist  upon  ? 

Comment  t' appelles-t7i  ? 

Je  in'appelle  comtne  mo7i  pere. 

Et  ton  pere  ?     Comjnent  s^appelle-t-il? 

II  s'appelle  comtne  7twi. 

Comtnent  vous  appeles-vous  tous  les  deux  ? 

Nous  nous  appelons  Vun  co/nme  V autre. 

The  reformers  have  often  been  censured  for  neglecting  written 
work  in  order  to  indulge  in  frequent  oral  exercises.    I  admit  that  we 


THE  ANALYTICAL-INDUCTIVE   METHOD  6/ 

begin  to  write  somewhat  later  than  was  customary  during  the  old 
regime^  but  the  moment  that  the  pupil  makes  use  of  his  text-book,  and 
is  acquainted  with  the  historical  orthography,  exercises  at  home  and 
in  class  are  begun.  The  first  writing  corrected  by  the  teacher  is  noth- 
ing more  than  a  simple  dictation  of  the  unchanged  text  of  the  first 
reading  piece  which  the  pupil  has  memorized.  Its  main  purpose  then 
is  to  aid  the  student  in  acquiring  orthographical  accuracy,  although  it 
is  also  profitable  for  him  to  hear  the  words  clearly  enunciated.  The 
second  written  test  to  be  corrected  by  the  teacher  is  dictation  in 
which  the  text  has  been  somewhat  changed.  The  pupil  should  be 
advised  to  pay  careful  attention  and  not  write  down  a  single  word 
whose  significance  he  does  not  understand.  The  third  dictation 
gives  the  story  as  it  has  been  amplified  and  retold,  and  employs 
grammatical  forms  which  do  not  occur  in  the  text  itself,  but  which 
have  been  sufficiently  practiced  by  the  pupil. 

Next  it  might  be  well  to  dictate  in  the  foreign  tongue  both  the 
questions  and  the  answers  which  have  been  used  in  class  in  connection 
with  the  reading.  Then,  as  another  exercise,  only  the  questions  are 
dictated,  which  the  pupils  must  answer,  of  course  in  complete  sen- 
tences. These  answers  will  at  first  keep  almost  slavishly  to  the 
wording  of  the  memorized  text,  but  gradually  the  questions  should 
become  freer  in  scope,  so  that  the  pupil  is  drawn  farther  and  farther 
away  from  it.  But  even  then  the  exercises  are  essentially  a  more  or 
less  exact  reproduction  of  what  he  has  retained  from  the  conversa- 
tions which  have  been  held  in  class. 

Thus  far  dictation  has  predominated,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  it 
has  been  through  the  efforts  of  the  reformers  that  such  exercises 
have  been  restored  to  the  position  of  honor  which  they  occupy. 
They  afford  a  most  valuable  training  for  the  ear.  The  pupil  learns 
to  catch  the  spoken  word  correctly,  but  at  the  same  time  he  advances 
towards  the  ideal  goal,  that  when  he  has  left  school  to  travel  abroad 
he  shall  be  able  to  follow  intelligently  a  conversation,  a  lecture,  or 
a  theatrical  performance. 

In  addition  to  this  such  class-room  exercises  lead  systematically 
and  by  sound  pedagogical  method  to  the  later  written  expression  of 
the  student's  own  thought.  By  the  form  of  our  questions  in  the 
foreign  language  we  oblige  the  pupil  to  reconstruct  the  reading 
material  with  constantly  increasing  independence.  We  put  questions 
which  lie  outside  the  actual  sphere  of  the  text  and  take  into  consid- 
eration what  has  been  imparted  in  connection  with  the  reading.     We 


6S  THK  TKAClIINt;   t)F  MODERN   LANGUAGES 

ask  about  things  which  the  use  of  a  map  or  of  a  wall  picture  has 
brought  to  discussion  in  class.  We  renew  acquaintance  with  matter 
presented  in  former  recitation  periods,  and  so  widen  the  scope  of 
these  exercises  that  the  questions  become  merely  gentle  hints  for 
what  is  in  the  main  a  free  reproduction  of  earlier  reading  and  conver- 
sation. In  this  manner  we  pave  the  way  for  the  coming  composi- 
tions in  the  foreign  language,  and  afford  them  their  first  really 
appropriate  basis.  He  Avho  believes  that  the  industrious  translating 
of  set  sentences  from  the  mother  tongue  forms  a  suitable  foundation 
for  independent  written  expression  is  greatly  mistaken ;  but  the 
transition  from  such  exercises  as  have  been  described  to  original 
compositions  in  the  foreign  language  is  scarcely  noticeable.  The 
dictated  questions  become  in  the  last  analysis  nothing  more  than 
outline  material  offered  by  the  teacher,  a  trellis,  as  it  were,  upon 
which  the  thoughts  of  the  pupil  are  to  be  trained  ;  a  guide  for  his 
written  presentation.  And  even  this  finally  falls  away,  and  there  is 
left  only  the  topic,  which  stands  in  a  certain  connection  with  the 
student's  reading  and  is  more  or  less  discussed  in  class. 

The  final  examinations  often,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  demand  trans- 
lations from  the  mother  tongue  into  the  foreign  language.  If  the 
teacher  wishes  to  prepare  for  these,  he  may  occasionally  put  the 
questions  for  written  tests  in  the  mother  tongue  and  have  them  trans- 
lated. Or  he  may  dictate  separate  sentences  for  similar  purpose,  but 
assuredly  not  such  as  appear  in  the  text-books  of  Ollendorff,  Mei- 
dinger,  and  Plotz,  of  blessed  memory  :  no  hodge-podge  of  single  sen- 
tences which  have  no  inherent  connection  with  each  other  or  with 
what  has  been  read.  The  text-books  even  of  the  "  moderated  re- 
formers "  offer  in  each  lesson,  in  addition  to  more  important  exercises, 
a  list  of  sentences  in  the  mother  tongue  for  the  purpose  of  transla- 
tion. But  compare  these  with  the  chaos  of  phrases  which  I  found  in 
a  well-known  German  text-book  for  American  schools,  published  in 
the  year  1901.  I  cite  them  verbatim  and  in  the  order  in  which  they 
appear  in  the  book  : 

I .  The  knight  said  he  would  like  to  see  the  new  building.  2.  The  chil- 
dren work  in  the  morning  and  play  in  the  evening.  3.  Please  hand  me  the 
bread.  4.  Is  that  your  right  or  your  left  hand?  5.  Can  you  see  that 
beautiful  apple-twig  through  the  hedge  of  thorns  ?  6.  Why  are  the  sun's 
rays  not  so  warm  in  winter  as  in  summer .''  7.  The  lark  sings  in  the  air, 
but  builds  its  nest  on  the  ground.  8.  The  book  I  have  in  my  hand  is  red. 
9.  The  emperor  presented  a  black  horse  to  the  traveler. 


THE  ANALYTICAL-INDUCTIVE  METHOD  69 

If  one  may  speak  of  a  central  thought  in  connection  with  this 
conglomeration,  it  is  solely  the  chapter  of  grammar  for  which  these 
sentences  afford  a  drill.  In  the  expressions  quoted,  that  is,  the 
author  of  the  much-used  text-book  was  emphasizing  the  difference 
between  English  and  German  word-order.  But  would  it  not  be  far 
wiser  to  take  material  for  observation  and  practice  from  a  connected 
reading,  to  have  all  the. sentences  depend  upon  the  text  of  this  and 
thus  be  united  by  one  central  idea  ?  In  defense  of  the  author  it  has 
been  said  in  all  earnestness  that  in  translating  the  pupils  do  not 
feel  the  folly  of  such  sentences  as  we  teachers  do.  They  regard 
them,  as  the  author  intended  they  should,  simply  as  material  for 
grammatical  exercises,  nothing  more.  And  no  thought  of  their  con- 
tent ever  enters  their  minds. 

I  can  only  reply  :  So  much  the  worse.  We  should  not  offer  our 
class  material  which  arouses  no  thought  in  the  more  careless  of  the 
pupils,  and  at  which  the  wide-awake  ones  poke  fun.  This  fundamen- 
tal difference  cannot  be  strongly  enough  emphasized.  The  pupil 
perceives  the  inner  connection  ;  everything  in  the  chapter  moves 
within  the  same  circle  of  ideas  ;  he  notices  that  in  these  sentences 
it  is  not  merely  important  to  apply  grammatical  rules,  but  also  to 
become  familiar  with  the  expressions  and  constructions  of  the  piece. 
More  can  be  taken  for  object-study  and  practice  of  a  given  chapter  of 
grammar  from  a  short  reading  of  four  lines  than  is  generally  sup- 
posed. Max  Walter  has  shown  what  an  abundance  of  exercises  may 
be  derived,  for  example,  from  the  well-known  anecdote  of  the  peasant 
who  went  to  the  optician's  for  a  pair  of  spectacles  which  would  teach 
him  to  read.  The  tale  may  be  formed  into  a  dialogue,  it  may  be 
put  into  the  mouth  of  one  or  the  other  of  the  persons  concerned ; 
from  the  dialogue  a  story  may  be  invented,  instead  of  one  person 
several  may  be  introduced.  The  teacher  who  has  attempted  such 
exercises  not  prescribed  by  any  text-book  will  be  obliged  to  admit 
that  they  offer  large  opportunity  for  independent  grammatical  exer- 
cises in  the  foreign  language,  as  well  as  for  ascertaining  whether  the 
pupil  has  mastered  certain  forms  and  constructions  and  has  learned 
how  to  apply  certain  rules  and  exceptions.  For  such  an  occasion  we 
do  not  need  English  sentences  filled  with  snares  and  laboriously  pre- 
pared to  meet  the  exigency  of  the  particular  case  ;  exercises  which 
have  been  not  unrightly  styled  "  grammatical  mouse-traps." 

It  scarcely  needs  mentioning  that  even  the  first  pieces  of  the 
reading-book  must  be  translated  not  only  word  for  word  but  into 


70 


THE  TEACUlxNC    OF   IMODICRN   LANGUAGES 


good  English.  The  meaning  of  every  word  must  be  definitely 
determined,  buf  we  should  also  see  to  it  that  the  children  copy  the 
story  at  home  in  the  original  and  then  write  a  clever  translation 
of  it.  If  great  pains  are  not  taken,  expressions  will  be  introduced 
which  are  due  to  the  influence  of  the  foreign  language  and  are  not 
standard  English.  And  yet,  as  W'ilhelm  Miinch  has  remarked,  every 
translation  from  the  foreign  language  should  offer  instruction  in 
expression  and  style  in  the  mother  tongue,  and  this  should  con- 
tinue up  to  the  point  when  the  more  advanced  pupil  does  away  with 
all  translation  and  the  understanding  of  what  is  read  is  acquired 
entirely  through   the  medium  of  the  foreign  language. 

The  short  and  simple  stories  of  the  first  reader  should  be  interest- 
ing to  the  pupil,  and  a  little  later  he  should  be  given  such  selections 
as  afford  pleasure  because  of  their  beauty  of  form  —  I  mean  poems. 
There  are  poems  whose  linguistic  form  is  the  simplest  possible  and 
which  offer  no  grammatical  difficulties  even  for  the  beginner.  But 
the  more  beautiful  the  verse-form  becomes,  the  larger  is  the  number 
of  expressions  whose  complete  apprehension  is  beyond  the  ability  of 
beginners.  Take  for  example  the  well-known  fable  of  La  Fontaine, 
La  Cigale  et  la  J^ourmi.  Teachers  desire  that  it  be  memorized  in 
the  first  year  of  study,  but  at  this  early  stage  it  would  be  false 
pedagogy  to  analyze  the  poem  grammatically  from  beginning  to  end. 
Let  the  meaning  of  the  words  be  determined,  give  the  translation  in 
good  English  prose,  and  then  if  possible  read  aloud  a  poetic  English 
rendering  in  order  to  afford  the  student  at  least  a  slight  aesthetic 
enjoyment.  But  several  constructions,  together  with  their  English 
equivalents,  will  have  to  be  simply  committed  to  memory  and  accepted 
without  detailed  explanation  just  as  the  poet  has  written  them.  We 
must  not  make  a  subjunctive  form  the  excuse  for  a  lecture  on  acci- 
dence or  modal  usage.  If  in  the  first  months  we  meet  the  expression 
Louis  douze  ktait  iin  des  meilleurs  rois  qii'ait  eus  la  France,  it  will 
suffice  at  this  stage  if  the  pupil  be  told:  '■'■Elk  ait  is  a  subjunctive 
form  corresponding  to  elle  a.  It  occurs  here  in  a  relative  clause 
dependent  upon  a  superlative.  We  shall  learn  more  about  this  after 
we  have  met  other  such  subjunctive  forms  in  our  reading." — And 
do  not  lay  too  great  stress  upon  the  pupil's  retaining  this  cursory 
explanation  indelibly  in  his  memory.  Later  reading  will  furnish 
further  contributions  of  a  similar  nature,  and  opportunity  will  thus 
be  offered  to  bring  to  mind  what  has  been  previously  stated,  to  recall 
an  expression  formerly  memorized  as  part  of  a  larger  whole,  and 


THE  ANALYTICAL-INDUCTIVE   METHOD 


71 


to  compare  it  with  new  and  similar  phenomena.  Many  theorists 
regard  this  avoidance  of  grammatical  difficulties  as  unpedagogic,  but 
even  the  pedantic  Plotz  did  not  consider  it  a  mark  of  superficiality, 
or  a  sin  against  the  child's  mind,  to  introduce  into  his  first  lessons 
side  by  side  with  the  regular  participles  of  the  -er  and  -ir  conjugations 
such  forms  ^s  fait,  re(u,  cotmnis,  all  with  different  endings,  although 
no  mention  had  been. made  of  irregular  verbs  or  of  the  primitive 
forms  faire,  recevoir,  commettre. 

For  the  beginner  every  word  is  at  first  merely  a  word.  The  ability 
to  distinguish  between  regular  and  irregular  is  only  gradually  devel- 
oped. In  the  text  chosen  above,  the  little  anecdote  about  Henry  IV, 
the  present  of  etre  and  the  reference  to  case  formation  by  means  of 
de  and  a  were  offered  so  naturally  and  unconstrainedly  that  we  could 
easily  transform  this  material  into  the  first  chapter  of  grammar.  But 
generally  speaking  one  should  guard  against  beginning  too  early  with 
systems  and  classifications.  First  let  a  goodly  supply  of  material  for 
observation  be  acquired  by  the  pupil,  stored  away  just  as  it  has  been 
offered  in  the  separate  reading  pieces.  Much  that  is  homogeneous 
will  be  united  unconsciously.  And  if  every  now  and  then  the  teacher 
spends  half  an  hour  in  sifting  and  classifying  the  more  important 
phenomena  on  the  blackboard,  the  pupils  will  be  only  too  glad  to 
furnish  the  material  of  which  the  system  is  to  be  constructed.  In 
order  to  be  perfectly  intelligible,  I  shall  use  as  an  example  from  my 
own  experience  those  forms  of  veiiir  {tenir)  which  had  occurred  in 
the  short  reading  pieces  of  the  first  reader  and  were  now  sought  out 
by  the  pupils  or  taken  from  memor}',  as  it  had  become  desirable  to 
review  the  forms  of  the  irregular  verb  and  to  bring  them  systematic- 
ally before  the  class : 

Elle  fit  vetiir  ses  enfants.  Viens,  apporte  dans  la  ville  tes  joyetix 
bourdonnetnents.  Le  volatit  vietit  toviber  jusque  sur  le  papier.  Ce  liest 
point  encore  celle  qui  m'appartient.  A  tout  venant  je  chantais.  Se  tenant 
deboiit  devant  lid.  Revenant  d''assez  long  voyage.  II  venait  de  terminer 
VHistoire  de  la  guerre  de  Sept-Ans.  Les  betes  feroces  elles-memes  venaient 
lecher  ses  pieds.  Un  habitant  de  Berlin  tenait  stir  Freddric  les  propos  les 
plus  wena^ants.  Maitre  Corbeau  tenait  en  son  bee  un  frotnage.  A  elle 
seule  appartenait  l''ho7inetir.  Aucune  qui  en  revientie.  Toute  riinpJtuo- 
site  des  Suisses  vint  echouer.  Qnand  on  vint  lui  annoncer.  Ma'itre  Reiiard 
lui  tint  a  peu  pres  ce  langage.  Le  peuple  le  retint.  Quand  la  bise  fut 
venue.  Avant  d'etre  parvenu  aux  portes  du  Jour.  Un  lion  devenu  vieux 
faisait  le  nialade.     Quand  reviendra-t-ilf 


72  THK  TEACH  I  Nc;   OF   MODERN    LANGUAGES 

From  the  forms  contained  in  these  examples,  chosen  from  the  anec- 
dotes, fables,  and  poems  of  the  reading-book,  the  verb  vaiir  {tcnir) 
in  all  its  tenses  may  be  reconstructed.  This  is  in  a  nutshell  the 
analytical-inductive  method  of  the  reformers,  and  it  leads,  as  we  have 
seen,  to  systematic  grammar.  Knowledge  thus  worked  over  is  surely 
more  lasting  and  full  of  life  than  a  laborious  memorizing  of  the  prin- 
cipal parts  of  the  verb  at  a  time  when  all  irregular  forms  are  unknown 
and  strange.  According  to  the  old  method,  irregular  verbs  were  taken 
up  systematically  in  groups  and  illustrated  by  twenty  or  thirty  sen- 
tences in  each  lesson,  which  were  constructed  with  a  view  to  offering 
all  possible  forms.  In  each  following  lesson  the  amount  to  be  absorbed 
was  increased,  but  the  procedure  remained  the  same.  After  a  few 
weeks  the  tormented  pupil  was  brought  to  the  point  where  with  his 
fellow-sufferer  in  Faust  he  could  cry  out  :  5Jfir  roirb  oon  aHe  bem  fo 
bumm,  qI§  ging'  mir  etn  9)iiil)Irab  im  ^iopf  l)crum.  Regarding  the 
French  irregular  verbs  and  the  German  strong  verbs  one  often  hears 
the  conviction  expressed  by  teachers  :  "  They  must  be  so  drummed 
into  the  pupil's  head  that  they  will  stick  !  "  But  in  the  light  of  the 
above  examples  it  will  be  seen  that  it  is  possible  to  have  the  more 
important  verbs  of  this  class  stick  before  we  come  to  the  unpleasant 
necessity  of  drumming.  And  this  compilation,  taken  from  actual 
practice,  shows  that  along  with  the  forms  of  the  simple  verb  the  pupil 
is  made  empirically  familiar  with  five  compounds  of  it,  as  well  as  with 
the  construction  of  venir  with  etrc,  and  the  important  expressions 
venir /aire  qiielque  chose  and  venir  de  /aire  quelque  chose. 

Naturally  the  first  reader  will  not  offer  material  in  like  abundance 
for  each  chapter  of  grammar.  But  what  the  texts  themselves  do 
not  afford  may  be  introduced  here  and  there  in  the  retelling  of  the 
texts  or  in  the  conversational  exercises.  Or  these  grammatical  facts 
will  soon  become  familiar  to  the  pupils  from  the  constantly  increas- 
ing number  of  remarks  in  the  foreign  language  which  the  teacher 
introduces  into  his  instruction.  What  an  abundance  of  irregular 
verb-forms  is  to  be  found  in  the  following  directions  and  questions 
of  the  teacher,  chosen  quite  at  random  : 

Asseyez-vous.  Assieds-toi.  Ouvre  ton  cahier.  Oiivrez  vos  livres. 
Les  livres  sont  oiiverts.  Lisez.  Nous  verrons.  Prends  la  craie.  Avez- 
vous  ce  qu'll  faiit  pour  ecrire  ?  Ecrivez.  Dites-le-moi.  Faites-le. 
Va  chercher  ton  etui  a  plumes.  Qii'est-ce  que  tu  veux  ?  Pouri-iez- 
vous  7!ie  dire  .  .  .  ?  Je  crains  que  cet  eleve  ne  soit  malade.  Va  le 
voir  et  demande-lui  quand  il  reviendra. 


THE  ANALYTICAL-INDUCTIVE  METHOD  73 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  teacher  and  a  test  of  his  skill  to  see  that 
much  that  is  typical  and  linguistically  important  is  brought  to  the 
ears  of  his  pupils  and  remembered  by  them.  With  no  apparent 
thought  or  care  he  tosses  to  his  pupils  foreign-language  crumbs,  and 
they  become  gradually  and  unconsciously  the  permanent  possession 
of  the  class. 

The  teacher  of  modern  languages  to-day  must  be  rich  in  inven- 
tion and  must  possess  the  gift  of  improvising.  His  method  is 
less  dependent  than  it  was  in  former  days.  It  is  furnished  him 
only  in  general  outline.  In  the  details  he  retains  much  freedom, 
and  the  more  actively  he  bestirs  himself  the  more  beneficial  is  his 
teaching.  The  old  method  was  in  many  respects  easier  for  the 
teacher.  The  introduction  to  pronunciation,  reading  aloud,  the 
practicing  of  the  reading  pieces,  strain  the  teacher's  organs  of 
speech ;  and  no  small  amount  of  versatility  is  demanded  in  retelling 
the  texts  and  in  the  manifold  exercises  which  are  dependent  upon 
this.  In  the  conversation  exercises  every  question  must  be  formu- 
lated simply  and  yet  with  definite  pedagogical  purpose  ;  and  later,  in 
collecting  and  sifting  the  material  for  object  study,  in  developing  the 
regular  and  the  essential,  in  building  up  a  grammatical  system  from 
the  abundance  of  disconnected  phenomena,  in  the  increasing  use  of 
the  foreign  language  in  the  class-room,  there  is  need  of  the  best 
efforts  which  the  teacher  has  at  his  command. 

It  has  already  been  emphasized  that  conversation  of  an  elementary 
nature  should  be  practiced  together  with  the  very  first  reading  piece, 
and  that  no  recitation  period  should  pass  without  such  exercises  in 
the  foreign  language.  From  the  outset  the  pupil  should  be  taught 
to  notice  that  a  modern  language  exists  for  practical  application,  that 
it  is  a  living  language  in  which  he  is  to  learn  to  express  his  thoughts 
with  ever-increasing  fluency.  Against  such  conversational  exercises 
during  the  first  months  of  study,  advocates  of  the  old  method  have 
raised  the  objection  that  no  actual  questions  can  be  put  before  the 
interrogative  pronouns  have  been  learned.  That  would  be  a  pigeon- 
hole method  indeed  !  We  no  longer  examine  the  various  com- 
partments of  grammar  systematically  and  in  the  traditional  order, 
thoroughly  rummaging  to-day  through  the  contents  of  the  first  box, 
but  on  no  account  disclosing  or  using  anything  which  lies  in  the  mys- 
terious depths  of  the  fifth  or  sixth.  I'or  such  a  course  the  reading 
pieces  of  our  text-books  are  not  adapted.  Most  of  them  are  full 
of  linguistic  phenomena  of  various  sorts,  and  a  selection  in  other 


74  THE  TEACHING   OF  MODERN   LANGUAGES 

respects  suitable  for  the  lower  grades  would  not  be  discarded  if 
there  should  occur  in  it  </////  quest-ce  qui  i  or  quelled  The  mean- 
ing and  case  of  these  interrogatives,  absolutely  necessary  for  the  sim- 
plest conversation,  would  be  determined  without  necessitating  any 
detailed  account  of  this  chapter  of  the  grammar.  Later  questions 
will  furnish  other  forms.  De  qui l  a  quoil  lequel?  iaquc/le  ?  are  soon 
familiar  to  the  pupils,  and  finally,  in  place  of  a  half-unconscious 
feeling  for  what  is  right,  there  will  be  attained  clear  grammatical 
insight  and  conscious  ability. 

No  longer,  as  in  former  days,  do  we  seek  anxiously  to  hold  aloof 
from  what  is  irregular  until  the  regular  has  been  completely  mastered. 
Quite  the  contrary  —  even  at  the  outset  the  pupil  is  thrown  out  into 
midstream.     For  only  so  can  he  learn  to  swim. 


VI.   GERMAN   GRAMMAR  AS  TAUGHT  BY 
THE  ANALYTICAL-INDUCTIVE   METHOD 

It  is  self-evident  that  the  texts  chosen  as  tlie  foundation  stones 
of  all  linguistic  training  must  not  be  selected  at  haphazard.  Why 
was  it  that  the  idea  of  beginning  instruction  with  a  reading  piece,  a 
plan  which  has  in  other  cases  proved  so  fruitful,  did  not  in  Jacotot's 
day  come  to  be  of  lasting  pedagogic  importance  ?  Ratichius  and 
others  who  laid  before  their  pupils  at  the  very  first  lesson  the  text  of 
a  classic  author  did  not  realize  that  the  strength  and  perseverance  of 
the  student  must  inevitably  falter  before  the  difficulty  of  his  task. 
Brevity  is  not  the  sole  desideratum  to  be  sought  in  the  first  anec- 
dote. If  it  is  to  serve  our  purpose  it  must  produce  good  English  in 
practically  word-for-word  translation  ;  it  must  offer,  that  is,  no  syn- 
tactical deviations,  but  merely  new  words.  If  necessary  let  the  text 
be  adapted  and  edited  with  this  particular  aim  in  view. 

In  the  following  unpretending  anecdote  I  would  offer  such  an 
elementary  text  for  instruction  in  German  : 

grtebric^  ber  S'^^it^,  ilonig  uon  ^reujjen,  lam  in  ein  feE^r  fletneg  2)orf.  (Sr 
roar  l^ungrig,  unb  ein  Saner  bvadjte  einige  ©ier.  Ser  ^'onig  fragte  benSJiann: 
„9Bag  ^abe  id)  3U  be3ar)len  ?"  —  „2)rei  Saler,"  fagte  ber  Saner.  —  „2)rei  Saler '?'' 
fragte  ^riebric^.  „©inb  bie  (Sier  jo  felten  f)ier '?"  —  2)er  Saner  antroortete :  „3lein, 
§err,  ©ier  finb  mdE)t  felten  f)ier ;  5?bnige  finb  felten." 

The  way  in  which  the  teacher  is  to  treat  and  practice  this  has 
been  illustrated  with  such  detail  in  the  case  of  an  analogous  French 
piece  that  I  can  limit  myself  to  a  few  hints. 

The  text  affords  sufficient  paradigms  for  further  drill  on  pronunci- 
ation (grouped  according  to  the  classification  of  the  vowel-triangle): 
griebrid^,  fe^r,  (am,  max,  brad^te,  ®orf,  tiungrig,  gu,  unb,  Itonig.  These 
may  also  be  used  as  examples  for  the  enunciation  of  a  large  number 
of  consonants.  If  the  introductory  discussion  of  map  and  portrait 
are  then  taken  into  consideration,  the  following  examples  for  diph- 
thongs will  be  gained :  2)eutfd)Ianb,  ^reu^en,  §aiiptftabt,  53aiicr,  ber 
Sroeite,  einige  (Sier. 

75 


■je  THE  TEACHING  OF  MODERN   LANGUAGES 

Material :  a  map  of  Germany,  a  portrait  of  Frederick  the  Great, 
and  a  picture  of  some  typical  German  village  showing  a  group  of 
peasants  in  characteristic  costume. 

Introduction  to  the  thought-coitcnt.  The  teacher  points  to  the 
map  : 

^ic§  i[t  cine  ilarte.  2Ba§  iff  ba§?  2)a§  i[t  ®eutfd)Ianb.  %^  jeige 
ivrcuj^en.  ^cigc  ^l>rcu|5en !  ®a5  i[t  33erlin.  2Bo  ift  ^^erlin?  ^^ierlin 
ift  bic  A>nipt[tabt  »on  ^i^reu^en.  ^reu^en  ge^ort  gu  S)eutfd)Ianb.  SBoju 
gcI)ort  ''^^tcufjcn  ?  ©in  ^ijnig  rcgicrt  in  ^^>rciif5en.  Gin  ^^'onicj  uon  ^Nreuf5en 
roar  'Jriebrid;  bet  ©rofic.  !iBcr  roar  ^ricbrid)  ber  ©rojje,  ober  "^riebric^  ber 
3roeite  ?    ^c^  seige  fein  33tlb.    SBer  ift  ba§  ? 

All  of  these  sentences,  if  spoken  with  distinct  enunciation  and 
accompanied  by  explanatory  gestures,  will  be  readily  understood,  and 
many  of  the  words  need  not  be  translated.  The  pupil  sees  the 
objects  and  thus  apprehends  what  the  teacher  means.  The  latter 
should  of  course  translate  each  word,  whenever  he  perceives  that 
complete  understanding  has  not  been  obtained  in  some  other  way. 
The  sentences  may  be  repeated  by  individual  pupils  and  then  in 
chorus,  although  this  is  not  really  necessary,  as  the  main  part  of  the 
instruction  —  the  story  itself  —  is  still  to  follow.  And  this  will  have 
to  be  thoroughly  worked  over  and  practiced. 

What  profit  has  been  derived  up  to  this  point  ? 

Realien.  The  pupils  have  seen  the  position  and  extent  of  Germany 
and  the  boundaries  of  Prussia,  they  have  heard  of  the  political  unity 
of  the  states  of  the  Empire,  have  learned  to  recognize  Berlin  as 
the  capital  of  Prussia  and  the  residence  of  Frederick  the  Great, 
and  have  perhaps  received  some  notion  of  the  homely  simplicity  of 
"  Old  Fritz,"  who  on  one  of  his  campaigns  entered  the  little  village 
hungry. 

Grammatical  profit.  Proper  names  without  the  article  :  S)eutfd^= 
lanb,  ^reu^en,  33erlin,  ^^riebrid).  Masculine  nouns:  ber  ^iimtg,  ber 
33auer;  feminine:  bie  ^arte,  bie  §aupt[labt;  neuter:  ba§  33ilb,  ba§ 
2)orf,  ba§  ©i.  The  pupils  have  now  found  the  three  forms  of  the 
definite  article  :  ber,  bie,  ba§.  If  the  teacher  in  retelling  the  story 
has  used  the  expression  ber  2^aler,  they  discover  that  the  masculine 
article  does  not  stand  merely  with  words  which  denote  males.  The 
children  recognize  the  indefinite  article  in  ein  ^ijnig,  ein  33auer,  eine 
^arte,  eine  §auptftabt,  ein  2)orf,  ein  Gt,  ein  33ilb,  —  expressions  which 
do  not  all  occur  in  the  piece  itself,  but  should  be  employed  in  the 


TEACHING  GERMAN  GRAMMAR  77 

retelling.  Even  a  plural  form  is  contained  in  the  piece.  The  pupil 
has  become  familiar  with  several  verb  forms,  and  by  a  comparison  of 
hva^te,  fragte,  nntroortete,  he  gains  the  characteristic  ending  of  the 
weak  preterit.  The  objection  may  be  raised  that  strong  verbs  appear 
in  the  text  side  by  side  with  weak  inflections;  but  if  the  pupil  com- 
pares fam  and  roar  with  the  English  forms  came  and  was,  he  will  see 
that  there  is  a  deviation, from  the  regular  tense-formation  in  his  mother 
tongue  as  well  as  in  the  German, 

I  should  not  attempt  to  derive  further  grammatical  instruction 
from  this  piece,  unless  it  were  to  call  attention  simply  to  the  accusa- 
tive form  ben  5[Rann,  and  oblige  the  pupil  to  discover  the  nominative 
case  of  this  word  for  himself  from  the  analogy  of  ber  ^bniQ  and  ber 
S3auer. 

When  the  piece  has  been  sufficiently  drilled  orally,  let  it  be  written 
on  the  blackboard  and  have  the  pupils  add  an  interlinear  translation. 
In  but  one  phrase  of  this  text  does  a  word-for-word  rendering  offend 
against  correct  English  usage.  A  neat  copy  with  translation  should 
be  demanded  as  home  preparation. 

After  four  class-periods  this  first  reading-piece  will  presumably  be 
so  well  learned  that  every  pupil  can  repeat  it  fluently  with  correct 
pronunciation  and  with  full  understanding  of  each  individual  word ; 
further,  with  the  help  of  map  and  portrait  he  will  now  be  able  to 
cope  with  the  questions  put  to  him  in  German  and  give  German 
answers  to  them.  Conversational  exercises  on  the  content  of  the 
piece,  participated  in  by  the  entire  class,  will  thus  result  satisfacto- 
rily. In  these  exercises  the  pupil  must  demonstrate  that  he  has 
actually  mastered  the  little  fund  of  grammatical  knowledge  already 
attained. 

Many  teachers  will  doubtless  prefer  to  find  uniform  grammatical 
material  grouped  more  homogeneously  together  in  the  first  pieces ; 
for  example,  the  nominative  singular  of  nouns  and  the  third  person 
singular  of  the  present  indicative  of  the  verb.  Such  ideal  pieces  are 
not  easily  discovered,  and  would  ordinarily  have  to  be  specially  edited 
for  our  purposes.  But  at  times  this  is  not  necessary.  There  are 
even  in  poetry  elementary  pieces  which  are  valuable  from  the  teach- 
er's point  of  view.     One  needs  but  to  seek. 

In  the  following  verses  we  have  uniformly-constructed  simple  sen- 
tences, excellently  adapted  to  illustrate  the  three  forms  of  the  article 
and  the  most  common  form  of  the  verb,  and  yet  in  spite  of  its  sim- 
plicity of  expression  the  piece  is  by  no  means  poetically  worthless. 


yS  THE  TEACHING   OV  MODERN   LANGUAGES 

It  contains  quite  a  number  of  words  and  therefore  demands  a 
certain  vocabulary  before  it  is  thoroughly  studied.  Those  teachers 
who  have  at  their  disposal  the  famous  pictures  of  the  seasons  by 
Holzel  (Vienna)  can  enliven  practice  on  this  poem  by  concrete  illus- 
tration. 

S}te  SBiefe  gviint,  ber  SSogel  bant, 
S)er  ilucfucf  ruft,  ber  Jliori^cn  taut, 
2)ag  S.>etld;en  bliifjt,  bie  2crd}e  finest, 
Ser  Dbftlmum  prangt.     Ser  <5i^iif)Ii"S  roin!t. 

S)ie  Sonne  ftidjt,  bie  3ioi'e  bliifit, 
Sie  Sof^ne  ranft,  bas  3Surmd)cn  G'"f)t, 
2)ie  2il^re  reift,  bie  Scnfe  fUngt, 
S)ie  ©arfie  raufd;t.    Ser  ©ommer  roinft. 
I 

®a^  Saii6  cerroellt,  bie  ®d;raa(De  fliel^t, 
2)er  Sanbmann  pfliigt,  bie  (Sd;neegang  3ief)t, 
Sie  2:rau()e  reift,  bie  Alelter  rinnt, 
S)er  2tpfel  Iad;t.    Ser  S^erfift  beginnt. 

Xex  ©ang  cerftummt,  bie  2(jt  erfd^allt, 
S)a§  ©d)neefetb  gldnst,  bag  3BalbI)orn  Ijallt, 
S)er  ®d)Uttjd)u[)  gleitet,  ber  ©dineedalt  fliegt, 
2)ie  g-Iut  erftarrt.    2)er  2Binter  fiegt. 

Supplementary  exercises.  Ask  for  the  objects  (persons,  animals) 
mentioned  in  the  poem,  using  the  interrogatives  roer  and  tt)a§ :  roaS 
gtiint?  trer  ruft?  raer  trtntt?  roaS  werroelft?  roer  pfliigt?  Questions 
may  thus  be  easily  formulated  for  each  line  of  text,  and  in  this  way 
German  interrogative  word-order  as  contrasted  with  English  usage 
may  be  practiced.  If  it  is  thought  desirable  to  devote  more  time  to 
grammar,  the  student  may  be  required  to  put  all  singulars  into  cor- 
responding plural  forms. 

The  following  simple  verses  likewise  offer  abundant  material  for 
practicing  the  first  person  plural  of  the  present  indicative,  as  well  as 
for  acquainting  the  pupil  with  many  important  verbs  and  with  a  few 
much-used  substantives.  No  difficulty  should  be  experienced  with 
the  expression  2Bir  ^aben'S  Tt)al)rltd)  gut;  it  can  be  memorized  simply 
as  the  equivalent  of  "we  are  well  off,"  and  any  further  grammatical 
explanation  regarded  as  superfluous. 


TEACHING  GERMAN   GRAMMAR  79 

®a§  fitcb  ber  SBogcI 

3Bir  Sogel  f)aben'g  tt)af)rltd^  gut, 
3Btr  fliegen,  Ijiipfen,  fpringen. 
3Cir  fingen  fcifd)  unb  roofjlgemut, 
S)a^  g-elb  unb  SJalb  ecHingen. 

2Bir  ftnb  gefunb  unb  forgenfrei, 
Unb  ftnben  ftet^,  roag  fd^medet. 
2Cof)in  n)ir  fUegen,  roo'g  aurf)  fei, 
S)a  ift  ber  %i]6)  gebedet. 

3ft  bann  bag  Xageroerf  BoIIfirad^t, 
©0  5ic()'n  iDtr  in  bie  Sdume. 
SBiv  ruf)en  ftill  unb  fanft  bie  3Jarf)t 
Unb  f)al)en  fd)one  Srdume. 

Unb  glanjet  frii^  ber  aJIorgenfd^ein, 
33ann  fc^raingen  iDir'g  ©efieber, 
•  SBir  fliegen  in  bie  2Selt  f)inein 
Unb  fingen  Su&ellieber. 

Practical  Exercises  in  connection  with  this  poem.  Repeat  it  to  the 
children  in  prose  form,  as  if  only  one  bird  were  telling  the  story. 
Or  retell  the  story  in  such  a  way  that  one  bird  is  addressed  by  the 
speaker,  then  several  birds.  Thus  the  second  person  singular  and 
plural  of  the  verb  can  be  ingeniously  and  unconstrainedly  brought 
before  the  pupils  and  practiced.  And  this  piece  affords  conversa- 
tional exercises  which  will  illustrate  new  interrogatives  most  desir- 
ably :  2Ber  ^at  e§  gut?  2Ba§  tun  bie  S^figel?  (the  third  person  of  the 
plural  is  distinguished  from  the  first  merely  by  the  pronoun  fie).  2Bie 
fingen  bie  3Sogel?  2Ba§  finben  fie  ftet§?  3Bo  x\x\)z\k  fie  in  ber  ^ffad^t? 
2Bann  fdjroingen  fie  baS  Oefieber?  2Bol)in  fliegen  fie?  Abundant  mate- 
rial is  offered  for  home  preparation  too,  even  if  the  translation  of 
prescribed  English  sentences  be  excluded  as  a  matter  of  principle. 

The  following  poem  is  exceptionally  well  adapted  for  illustrating 
and  practicing  the  use  of  the  adjective,  not  in  nonsensical,  isolated 
sentences,  but  in  connected  reading  which  offers  no  syntactical 
difficulties, 

^tc  Gnttcjeit 

©d^iwiite  Siifte  roefien, 
SReife  Saaten  ftef)en, 
Sleiclje  5-rucf)t  ber  2lcfer  trdgt. 
©cf)arfe  ©id;cln  tlingen, 
SJhmtce  iicrdjen  fingen, 
Unb  bie  frotje  IBadjtel  fdjliigt. 


So  THK  TEACH  INC,   OF  MODERN   LANGUAGES 

(ylci[;'nc  Sdjnittov  uiallon, 
Sd)lante  .^^almo  fallen, 
llnb  bic  voile  &avbc  luintt. 
Slvlicitfamc  .vilitbc 
ilici^'ii  fid)  oljii'  iSnbe, 
SBisi  bie  licbe  Sonne  ftnft. 

SJJnt'ge  3ioffe  jaQcn, 
Unb  bie  lecvcn  SBagen 
^iillt  ber  gelbe  SBeijen  balb. 
j^-erne  ©ouner  grollen, 
§or)e  'ffii'Qcv  rollen, 
Unb  bie  lange  ^eitfd)e  fnaUt, 

{^•[ei^'ge  ^ned;te  rennen 
3Jad;  ben  offnen  STennen, 
3SoU  roirb  jet^  bas  teere  §au§. 
SBange  Sorgcn  iDcid;en. 
%vo{)e  £ieber  fteigen, 
2Jiiibe  ©d;nttter  ruf;en  aug. 

Plotz  himself  could  not  have  introduced  more  adjectives  in  any 
twenty  of  his  famous  sentences.  And  the  poet  employs  only  the 
most  common  forms  of  the  verb  ;  his  verses  are  written  entirely  in 
the  present  tense. 

In  conversational  exercises  dealing  with  this  poem  let  the  teacher 
formulate  his  questions  so  that  the  children  will  be  obliged  to  apply 
the  adjectives  :  a,3ag  fiir  ein  (eine) . .  .  ?  or  91>a§  fiir  .  .  .  ?  In  retelling 
the  story  let  the  attributive  adjectives  be  placed  in  predicate  position  : 
2^ie  Suft  ift  fd^rDiil,  bie  Saaten  finb  reif,  bie  Std;eln  finb  jdjarf,  ber  3d)rtit= 
ler  ift  fleifjig,  etc.  From  the  analogy  of  bie  frolje  SSoc^tel  (stanza  i), 
bie  ttoEe  ©arbe,  bie  liebe  Sonne  (stanza  2),  bie  leeren  3Bagen,  ber  gelbe 
3Bei3en,  bie  lange  ^^eitfd)e  (stanza  3),  ba§  leere  §au§,  bie  offnen  Rennen 
(stanza  4),  let  the  remaining  adjectives  and  the  article  be  practiced 
with  nouns,  thus  demonstrating  the  distinction  in  the  inflection  of 
their  plurals. 

If  it  is  desired  to  obtain  as  many  genitives  as  possible  in  a  single 
reading  piece,  the  following  rhymes  will  be  found  useful : 

9?cittt3etlcn 

2)te  Qm  be§  <pofe§  ift  ber  £»af;n. 
Sie  §anb  be§  ^ifc^f)^'^^  lenft  ben  ila^n. 
Gin  ^-reunb  beo  &aufeg  ift  ber  §unb. 
Sin  3;eil  beg  3^"hxere  ift  tia^  ^funb. 


TEACHING   GERMAN   GRAMMAR  8l 

Sa5  '^•di  beg  Sdren  nennt  man  ^etj. 
Sa'j  ©d}[o[5  be€  DUttev^  siert  ben  ^-elg. 
Sie  <rtraft  beg  5linbe6  ift  nid;t  grof?. 
©ein  3JuE;'pla^  ift  ber  2)Jutter  ©d;o^. 

Exercises  in  comiection  with  this  piece.  In  the  conversational  exer- 
cises ask  for  the  modifiers,  using  the  interrogative  roeffcn.  S^efjen 
§anb  Ien!t  ben  ^a^n?  2Bcfjen  ^efl  nennt  man  ^elj?  ai]effen  ^raft  ift  nic^t 
grojj?  Let  the  genitive  forms  be  definitely  fixed  in  the  memory,  and 
in  retelling  the  text  bring  to  the  observation  of  the  class  the  nomina- 
tive and  accusative  cases  of  the  nouns. 

Instead  of  memorizing  the  possessive  pronouns  in  a  systematic 
classification,  I  should  recommend  that  a  simple  story  like  the  follow- 
ing be  practiced  in  class,  so  that  the  pupil  could  discover  the  desired 
forms  for  himself  : 

^ic  StcOtiug^farfictt 

3fluboIf  imb  Sertf)a  ftritten  fid),  rceldje  ^-arte  bie  fc^ijnfte  fei.  Slubolf  fprad^ : 
„3JJeine  Sieblingsfarbe  ift  rot.  9Jot  finb  unfere  Stofen  im  ©arten."  33crt[)a 
fprad^:  „%^)  liebe  bie  Olaue  '^^x^it  am  meiften.  ©ie|  ben  §immd  an:  Seine 
j^arbe  ift  blau.  Slau  ift  and)  b  eine  Sieblinggblume,  bag  Seild^en."  Ser  S8ater 
abcr  fprad;:  „6uev  ©treit  ift  nnniitj.  2U(e  ^-arben  finb  fd)on.  %i)xz  gro^te 
^radjt  beiDunbern  rair  im  3iegen5ogen."  2)amit  seigte  er  nad)  bem  §immel,  ido 
eOen  ein  l^errlid)er  3legenl&ogen  ftraf}tte. 

In  the  conversational  exercises  on  this  piece  the  questions  can  be 
put  so  ingeniously  that  the  children  cannot  avoid  using  the  possessive 
pronouns  in  their  answers.  In  retelling  the  story  the  results  of  the 
former  grammatical  lesson  on  the  genitive  can  be  further  practiced 
by  substituting  nouns  for  possessive  pronouns. 

A  short  reading  piece  can  easily  be  found  which  will  afford  sufficient 
instruction  for  cardinal  and  ordinal  numbers,  and  which  will  prove 
profitable  for  conversation  in  class.  To  furnish  further  material  for 
the  numbers,  and  to  make  the  lesson  clear  and  interesting,  the  teacher 
might  count  the  windows  of  the  class-room,  the  seats,  the  pupils,  the 
pictures,  papers,  books,  and  note-books,  while  the  ordinal  numbers  can 
perhaps  be  best  memorized  as  follows :  S)u  bift  ber  erfte  ©djiiler,  bu 
bift  ber  jraeite.  5fficr  ift  ber  britte  in  biefer  5HeiI)e?  ©eorg  ift  ber  oierte 
©diUIer.   3a()It  V^W  lueiter !  etc. 

Accusative  (direct)  objects  have  already  occurred  in  former  reading 
pieces.  The  teacher  may  recall  these  by  a  few  questions  in  German, 
and  then  offer  further  illustration  of  the  accusative  form  and  the 


8 J  Till-:  TEACHING   OF   MODERN  LANGUAGES 

meaning  of  the  direct  object  in  the  following  poem.  For  verses  are 
easiest  to  memorize,  and  are  retained  longest  in  the  mind.  They  are 
to  be  recommended  for  the  earlier  stages,  though  only  on  the  assump- 
tion that  tliey  are  as  simple  in  language  as  those  here  chosen. 

3lUcrl)aub  S-ciuiic 

2)er  ^ixqtt  ]d)ie^t  ben  ®eier, 
S)er  .V>ttf)n  uerfd)hicft  ben  SBurm, 
S)a6  (5-iid)lein  fltc[)t  ben  3Jcil)er, 
Sen  Saum  jerbridjt  ber  ©tuvm. 

S)er  §abi(i)t  fdngt  bie  2;aut)c, 
2)ie  ila^e  t)afc^t  bie  9Jiaug, 
2)er  Spal^  uerfc()mauft  bie  Xraube, 
S)er  33Ii^  jerftort  bag  §au§. 

S)ec  Sorce  roiirgt  bie  9?tnber, 
S5er  Sdr  fdllt  'Dienfd^en  an, 
S)ie  Siene  [tid)t  bie  itinber,  — 
(g§  rette  fid),  loer  faun. 

It  would  be  quite  wrong  to  acquaint  the  pupil  with  the  name 
"  object "  before  the  meaning  and  general  idea  had  been  rendered 
intelligible  and  derived  from  examples.  In  connection  with  the  above 
piece  such  questions  as  these  could  be  put:  2Ben  fd)ie^t  ber  ^ager? 
9Sag  »erfd)maufl  ber  gpa^?  2Sag  §etftort  ber  5BH^?  2Sen  [ttd)t  bie  Siene? 
The  children  are  obliged  to  answer  in  complete  sentences  and  thus 
make  practical  application  of  the  accusative  object.  In  order  to 
illustrate  the  forms  of  the  accusative  in  as  many  ways  as  possible, 
a  number  of  sentences  in  plural  form  can  be  given  in  the  retelling 
of  the  text.  A  few  sentences  should  begin  with  the  object,  to  prevent 
the  erroneous  notion  that  the  accusative  may  only  follow  the  verb. 

The  well-known  fable  of  the  fox  and  the  raven  can  be  easily  ren- 
dered in  prose  in  such  a  way  that  each  separate  sentence  offers  an 
instructive  example  of  the  direct  object.  A  series  of  questions  as  to 
the  content  of  this  fable  will  make  the  form  and  significance  of  the 
direct  object  clear  and  intelligible  to  the  class. 

■Jjcr  9Jot)c  unb  ber  5ut^^ 

3)er  Slabe  (jatte  euxen  5ia[e  geftof^ten.  Sarauf  fudite  er  ftd^  tm  SBalbe  etnen 
33aum  au§.  2(uf  biefem  tooUte  er  ben  i^ctfe  Ber5e^ren.  Gin  I)imgriger  "^u^^  rcoUte 
ben  'Jiaben  iifierltften  unb  rief  mit  lautec  Sttmme:  „®el^t  bod)  ten  dlabenl  2tUe 
SSelt  fcerounbert  i^n.     3)urd)  bie  Sd;bnf)eit  feiner  gebern  iibertrifft  er  faft  aHe 


TEACHING  GERMAN  GRAMMAR  8^ 

SBogel.  3lber  leiber  6eft^t  er  feine  ©timme."  Siefe  SBorte  fi^elten  ben  3ta5en. 
©ogleid)  luollte  er  feine  ©timtne  pren  lafjeu  iinb  offnete  begl^alb  feinen  ©dfinabel. 
2)abei  lief}  er  ben  i!dfe  fallen.  Ser  %udp  fcl)nappte  ben  5lafe  auf  unb  lad^te  ben 
9Jal)en  au'j. 

After  the  pupils  have  become  familiar  with  the  accusative  and  the 
direct  object,  a  piece  may  be  introduced  in  which  the  indirect  objects 
are  particularly  emphasized.  In  the  following  short  didactic  anec- 
dote almost  every  sentence  shows  as  a  supplement  of  the  predicate  a 
noun  in  the  dative  case,  which  in  German  instruction  may  be  called 
the  raem=case  (corresponding  to  the  form  of  the  interrogative). 

Scftrnftcr  Ungcliorfttui 

^arl  unb  Dtto  gingen  in  ben  ©arten.  SSeibe  begegneten  bem  ©cirtner. 
Siefer  rief  ben  ^naben  ju:  „3l}r  mii^t  bem  S3ienenftoct'e  augraeid^en.  ^6) 
traue  ben  Sienen  nidjt."  ^arl  banlte  bem  SJJanne.  ®r  folgte  bem  State. 
Dtto  aber  g  e  t)  o  r  rf)  t  e  ber  2Carnung  nicl)t.  @r  e  n  t  g  e  g  n  e  t  e  bem  ©drtner :  „3ian 
barf  nict)t  5U  dngftlid;  fein!"  £arl  siirnte  bem  (^reunbe.  6r  fprad) :  „3d)  fage 
eg  bem  Skater. "  Sro^bem  n a  1^  er t  e  fid)  Dtto  bem  Sienenftode.  ^loljUd)  fd)rie  er 
laut  auf.  ©ine  93tene  {)atte  il)n  geftod^en.  S)er  ©drtuer  eilte  l;erbei.  ®r  l^alf 
bem  ilnaben.  ®§  gelang  bem  freunblid^en  9Jianne,  ben  ©tadjel  tieraugsujiefjen. 
Sabei  erflitrte  er  ben  itnabeu  bas  ©prid)raort:  SBer  nid)t  pren  mill,  muB 
fill)  I  en ! 

The  treatment  of  this  piece  is  naturally  similar  to  that  of  the  two 
preceding  selections.  After  the  customary  exercises  have  been  prac- 
ticed, let  the  verbs  be  separated  from  the  text  and  the  following 
assignment  made  for  home  study  :  Form  German  sentences  with  each 
of  these  verbs,  using  as  objects  nouns  taken  from  previous  exercises. 

One  need  not  string  together  sentences  according  to  the  old  method, 
phrases  with  neither  logical  nor  chronological  connection,  in  order  to 
illustrate  the  various  sentence-forms.  By  means  of  the  following 
piece,  which  is  quite  intelligible  to  any  child,  declarative,  imperative, 
interrogative,  optative,  and  exclamatory  sentences  may  be  illustrated  : 

^a§  frnittc  5linb 

a.  (S)a§  Jltnb.)  3d)  bin  fran!.  ©^  tut  mir  alle^  tuef).  3^)  '"^g  md;t  effen. 
SDag  Spiel  gefdllt  mir  nid)t  mef)r.     '^d)  roill  mid)  im3  Sett  legen. 

d.  (Sie  (SItern  5um  Slrjte.)  ilomm  ju  ung !  ©tel)  nac^  unferm  iltnbe !  Untev 
fud)e  feine  itrantljeit !     ©ib  tf)m  Slrjnet  I    3Dfad)c  eg  roieber  gefunb  I 

c.  (2)ev  Slv^t  ,^u  ben  (SItern.)  3ft  bag  ,ftinb  fd)on  lange  franf '?  SUoriibcr  flagt 
eg  ?  SBo  fiil)lt  eg  Sd)mcrjen  ?  §at  eg  fid;  erldltet  V  §at  eg  fd;dblid)e  Speifeu 
gen  off  en  ? 


84  IHE  TEACHING  OF   MODERN   LANGUAGES 

ii.  (?ov 'Jliit  uitn  .Uinbc.)  Sci  iiicljt  dnflftlicf) !  Wib  mtr  bciiic  !^:iaub  !  3^19^ 
mir  boiue  ^^uiu\cl     '311111111  t)io)e  ^Iv^nci  ciu !     SJlcibe  riil)ic;  im  iU'tt  liei^en! 

f.  (Tiio  Atiiib  311  lion  tSltoni.)  Mbiintc  id)  bod)  balb  uncbcr  aufftcljcn !  .^"uitte 
id^  mil-  iud)t  fo  bcftiiu'  3d)iiu-i-UMi  I  'il>cim  mid)  tniv  cinnuil  meiiic  (svcuiibo  licfudjlcn  1 
2.l>cmi  id)  tod)  ImlD  ivicbor  in  bie  2d)nle  gel)cn  fonntc !  ilNCiin  id;  mtr  bnlb  luiebcv 
gcfunli  luiirtie ! 

/.  (T'li'S  gencfene  Mint*.)  9Bie  froO  id)  bin !  liebcr  ©ott,  rcie  banfe  id)  bir  I 
SBie  folgfam  iwill  id)  nun  mcincu  GUcrn  fein  ! 

It  will  prove  instructive  to  retell  this  text  so  that  the  declarative 
sentences  of  paragraph  a  are  changed  into  interrogative  sentences, 
the  imperative  sentences  of  paragraph  h  into  optative  sentences : 
D,  Tnbd)te  bod)  ber  2Ir3t  fommen !  D,  menu  er  bod)  bcm  i^iiibe  Slrjnei 
Qdbe  iinb  c3  luieber  gcfunb  madjte ! 

I  will  close  this  presentation  of  the  anal3-tical-inductive  method 
with  a  reading  piece  of  a  historical  nature,  from  the  study  of  which 
the  use  of  important  prepositions  may  be  derived : 

Seit  ber  ©eburt  (Ef)rifti  !ann  man  »on  bcuti'd)er  Gefd)t(j^te  reben.  3^ie  iiltefte 
iBeid)reibung  beo  beutid)en  i'anbco  imb  ber  Sitten  ber  alien  ©ermanen  iBurbe  oou 
einem  3Ji3mcr,  Jacitus,  geltefert.  Sie  alten  Seutfd)en  [)atten  fd)roere  itdmpfe  mit 
ben  3!omern  311  fiifiren.  Ser  ^tingling,  iDe[d)er  fie  auo  ber  romifd)en  fvncc^tfd)nft 
rettete,  f)iei5  S>ermann  obcr  2lrminiu§.  (Sr  fd)Iug  ben  rDmtfd)en  g-elbf)errn  SaruS 
famt  feinem  .veere  in  bcm  Jeutoburger  SIBalbe.  Sag  ®c^lad)tfelb  inar  na[)e  ber 
SBefer.  5Rad^  jener  ©d)(ad)t  icar  3)eutfd)Ianb  frei.  Spdter  traten  luiter  ben  ©er= 
manen  befonber^  bie  g'^anfen  f)eruor.  Sie  geprten  ju  ben  tapferften  ^Solf^ftdmmen. 
2tu^er  ben  gJ-'f>"ten  rcaren  fx^xi)  bie  Sac^fen  gefiird)tet.  Um  bag  %o.\)x  800  leiftete 
ein  %\yt\i  aus  fran!ijd)em  Stamme  ber  CSinigiing  ber  ©ermanen  3U  einem  Solfe 
roertnoUe  I^ienfte.  Surd)  biefen  5^axfer  rcurben  bie  ©ad^fen  jum  G^riftentum 
befef)rt.  ©pdtere  beutfd)e  i^aijer  aw^  fdc^fijd)em  Stamme  roaren  &einrtd)  I.  unb 
Ctto  ber  ©ro|e.  Sie  fdmpften  gegen  bie  Ungarn.  Seibe  ^(xhtw  fitr  bie  3id)er^eit 
beg  Sanbeg  geforgt;  D^neif)ren  9Jhit,  ofjne  i[)re  ©infic^t  roar  Seutjd)[anb  uerloren. 

When  this  piece  was  studied  in  the  Horace  Mann  School  the  serv- 
ices of  a  map  of  Germany  were  supplemented  by  various  historical 
pictures  especially  prepared  for  educational  purposes  by  Wachsmut 
of  Leipzig.  From  these  really  excellent  pictures  the  pupils  gained 
a  lively  idea  of  the  great  historical  personalities,  their  costumes  and 
armor,  their  methods  of  fighting,  etc.  But  it  w-as  also  demonstrated 
that  the  use  of  the  prepositions  could  be  rendered  much  clearer 
to  the  class  by  the  discussion  of  these  maps  and  pictures  than  by 
the  above  reading  piece  or  by  dry  grammatical  rules,  even  though 
they  be  presented  in  ever  so  harmonious  verses.  When  the  course 
of  the  Weser,  the  location  of  the  Teutoburger  Wald  where  Arminius 
won  his  victory,  Aachen  the  residence  of  Charlemagne,  the  Lechfeld 


TEACHING  GERMAN  GRAMMAR  85 

where  the  Hungarians  were  defeated,  were  pointed  out  on  the  map, 
the  prepositions  nad),  an,  jtuifd;en,  nal}e,  auf,  bieSfeit,  jenfeit,  etc,  were 
employed  with  the  appropriate  cases.  By  means  of  the  historical 
pictures  the  teacher  could  even  illustrate  the  distinction  in  the  use  of 
one  and  the  same  preposition  with  different  cases  : 

2So  fel)t  il)r  2lrminiu§  auf  biefem  33tlbe?  2Btr  fe^en  tf)n  in  einem 
3Balbe.  2BoJ)in  i[t  er  gejogen?  @r  ift  in  einen  2BaIb  gejogen.  2Bo  fi^t 
Uaxl  ber  ©rofje  auf  biefem  Silbe?  @r  fi^t  auf  feineni  3:^ronc.  2Bol)in 
ri(^tet  flonig  §einric|  l)ier  ben  33Iicf?  (Sr  rid)tet  ben  ^licf  auf  bie 
Ungarn,  etc. 

And  a  third  means  of  making  clear  the  correct  use  of  the  preposi- 
tions with  different  cases  was  not  disdained  :  the  actual  object  lesson 
in  the  classroom.  The  teacher  threw  a  book  upon  the  floor  with 
the  words  : 

^6)  roerfe  biefe§  33uc^  auf  bie  @rbe.  2Bof)in  roerfe  \6)  ba§  33ud^?  2Iuf 
bie  @rbe.  3Bo  liegt  je^t  ba§  33ud)?  3luf  ber  (Srbe.  ^d;  trete  jroifd^en 
bie  33anf  unb  ben  %\\6).  2Bo[)in  trete  id;?  3iwif'i)ei^  ^it;  33anf  unb  ben 
^ifc^.     2I6er  mo  ftelje  id)  je^t?     B^Jifo^en  ber  33anf  unb  bem  3:ifci^e,  etc. 

Such  object  lessons  as  this  may  be  made  amusing  for  the  class, 
and  are  highly  instructive  withal. 

From  time  to  time  the  bits  of  grammar  obtained  in  the  various 
lessons  are  collected  and  the  pupils  are  called  upon  to  furnish  suitable 
contributions  for  this  purpose  from  memory.  They  seek  out  and 
classify  at  home  from  the  various  reading  pieces  what  seems  to 
them  grammatically  homogeneous.  In  this  way  they  often  discover 
without  the  guidance  of  the  teacher  what  fact  is  common  to  all  exam- 
ples, and  then  they  have  the  grammatical  law  underlying  this  fact, 
which  merely  needs  to  be  clothed  in  appropriate  form. 

I  hope  from  this  sketch  of  the  analytical-inductive  method  it  has 
become  evident  even  to  the  skeptics  that  the  so-called  new  method 
does  not  despise  grammar  and  does  not  misjudge  the  worth  of  gram- 
matical system, — but  that  it  aims  to  attain  grammatical  knowledge 
in  a  more  natural  way  than  has  previously  been  the  case,  with  the 
firm  conviction  that  knowledge  so  acquired  is  more  valuable  and  will 
be  longer  retained. 


VII.  A  READING  COURSE  IN  GERMAN  FOR 
SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

We  are  to  treat  here  of  what  is  known  in  Germany  as  the  Lek- 
turekation:  in  other  words,  an  established  Ust  of  works  to  be  read 
in  the  various  classes  of  any  higher  school ;  or,  in  a  somewhat 
broader  sense,  a  list  of  authors  from  which  the  instructor  has  to 
choose  the  material  for  class  and  private  reading.  Our  central 
authority,  the  Royal  Board  of  Education  for  Provincial  Schools,  and 
above  all  else  the  courses  of  study  for  higher  schools  in  Prussia 
published  by  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  (the  most  recent  are 
dated  1901),  give  general  directions  for  such  selection.  They  indicate 
certain  authors  who  under  no  circumstances  are  to  be  overlooked, 
they  exercise  a  control  over  all  new  proposals,  but  to  some  degree 
they  allow  the  individual  instructor  a  freedom  of  choice.  Espe- 
cially in  modern-foreign-language  teaching  it  has  not  been  thought 
advisable  to  lessen  particularly  the  width  of  scope  which  at  present 
characterizes  the  prescribed  reading.  In  the  separate  schools  a 
special  conference  of  the  departmental  teachers  of  the  various  classes 
is  called  from  time  to  time,  which  determines  to  what  extent  the 
approved  list  of  reading  is  to  be  modified  or  supplemented.  Their 
resolutions  are  put  on  paper  in  the  institution's  schedule  of  studies, 
and  this  is  laid  for  approval  before  the  Board  of  Education,  which 
in  turn  determines  whether  the  selection  decided  upon  is  suited  to 
the  class  of  the  school  in  question,  and  whether  it  is  in  harmony 
with  the  directions  given  by  the  government. 

There  is  a  decided  stability  in  the  approved  list  of  reading  for  Prus- 
sian schools  in  the  departments  of  Latin,  Greek,  and  German.  For  the 
ancient  languages,  and  to  a  certain  extent  for  German,  this  is  quite 
natural  and  justifiable.  We  have  had  under  our  eyes  for  centuries 
the  whole  of  that  precious  legacy  of  imperishable  value  the  master 
minds  of  Greece  and  the  classical  authors  of  Rome  bequeathed  to 
later  generations.  The  Iliad  and  Odyssey  of  Homer  and  the  Odes 
of  Horace  have  become  so  inherent  a  part  of  our  approved  list  of 
reading  that  the  Greek  and  Latin  recitation-periods  during  which 
these  authors  are  interpreted  are  termed  in  the  curriculum  of  the 

86 


A  READING  COURSE  IN  GERMAN  87 

last  school-years  "the  Homer  period,"  or  "the  Horace  period." 
The  value  of  the  other  classical  authors  too  has  long  since  been 
determined,  and  it  is  but  rarely  that  some  temporary  unimportant 
variation  appears  in  the  prescribed  list. 

In  German,  we  rate  Lessing,  Goethe,  Schiller,  and  Uhland  as 
undisputed  school  classics  ;  but  in  the  selection  of  their  works  there 
is  greater  freedom  than  is  the  case  with  the  ancient  authors.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Prussian  schedule  it  is  impossible  and  altogether  incon- 
ceivable that  a  student  complete  the  six-years  high-school  course, 
even  though  it  exclude  Latin,  without  having  read  (and  not  super- 
ficially either)  at  least  one  masterpiece  each  of  Lessing,  Goethe,  and 
Schiller,  without  having  memorized  some  of  Uhland's  ballads.  But 
rich  treasures  lie  outside  of  this  narrow  circle,  especially  in  the  field 
of  modern  German  literature ;  and  I  do  not  find  it  justifiable  that 
even  in  America  tradition  and  official  regulations  leave  little  room 
for  the  individual  judgment  of  the  teacher. 

In  this  regard  the  teachers  of  modern  foreign  languages  in  Prussia 
are  better  situated  ;  and  as  the  conditions  under  which  teachers  of 
German  in  America  work  are  similar,  it  will  be  profitable  to  consider 
the  situation  more  in  detail. 

Long  past  are  the  times  when  in  the  approved  list  of  reading 
for  modern  foreign  languages  in  German  schools  Racine,  Corneille, 
Moliere,  and  Voltaire  were  ever  paraded  before  us  ;  when  Shakespeare, 
Goldsmith's  Vicar  of  Wakefield,  Byron's  Childe  Harold,  Dickens's 
Christmas  Carol  zx^di  Cricket  on  the  Hearth,  Washington  Irving's  Sketch 
Book  or  Alhambra  Tales,  made  their  invariable  appearance;  when 
the  teacher  who  dared  substitute  for  Charles  XII  or  the  Vicar  of 
Wakefield  a  less  obsolete  work,  one  more  valuable  from  the  lin- 
guistic point  of  view  as  well  as  from  that  of  thought-content,  was 
regarded  as  an  audacious  innovator  or  an  uncultured  revolutionary. 

The  rapid  advance  that  modern-foreign-language  teaching  has 
made  in  the  last  fifteen  years  in  Germany  has  caused  an  enlivening 
and  purifying  breeze  to  sweep  through  the  traditional  prescribed  list, 
a  breeze  that  has  brought  down  many  a  moth-eaten  piece  of  stock 
goods  and  made  it  possible  to  replace  antiquated  idols  by  modern 
literary  masterpieces,  more  important  factors  in  the  intellectual  life 
of  our  day.  In  this  domain  the  higher  authorities  have  left  teachers 
a  free  hand.  They  pointed  out  to  us  new  goals  —  especial  thanks  are 
due  the  German  Emperor  for  the  impulse  he  gave  the  cause,  —  they 
designated  the  cultivation  of  present-day  literature  and  of  colloquial 


88  Till::  TEACHING   OF   MODERN    LANGUAGES 

language  as  factors  not  to  be  neglected,  and  thereby  opened  a  wider 
field  of  activity  for  the  schools;  and  if  we  but  survey  this  field,  in 
which  hundreds  of  new  school-editions  have  recently  appeared  and  in 
which  the  tastes  of  individual  teachers  are  so  widely  divergent,  some 
notion  can  be  formed  of  the  varied  contents  of  the  approved  list  of 
reading,  if  indeed  in  this  department  one  can  speak  of  a  list  at 
all.  The  school  principals  generally  allow  French  and  English 
teachers  to  propose  a  book  of  their  own  choice,  whether  it  has  stood 
the  test  of  the  class-room  or  not,  and  objection  is  but  rarely  raised 
to  the  selection  thus  made  according  to  individual  taste.  The  teacher 
and  the  principal  are  of  course  responsible  to  the  higher  authorities. 

It  is  evident  that  we  cannot  reproach  the  Prussian  authorities  with 
narrow  pedantry  or  with  tenacious  adherence  to  antiquated  prin- 
ciples. It  was  a  Prussian  school  commissioner  who  wrote  some  nine 
years  ago  in  regard  to  the  reading  course  in  modern  foreign  lan- 
guages :  "  We  must  do  away  with  this  one-sided  aesthetic,  literary, 
historical  material,  and  seek  to  employ  in  our  reading  the  literary  ex- 
pression of  all  the  activities  of  modern  civilized  life." 

This  view-point  might  well  be  emphasized  in  the  selection  of  Ger- 
man reading  for  American  secondary  schools.  The  school  system  is 
keeping  step  with  the  phenomenal  progressiveness  of  American  cul- 
ture along  other  lines ;  and  one  of  its  notable  features  is  instruction 
in  German  by  a  vigorous  corps  of  teachers,  mostly  young  men  and 
women  who  were  born  on  German  soil  or  have  received  there  a 
goodly  part  of  their  intellectual  training,  or  at  least  visit  Germany 
from  time  to  time  to  keep  themselves  in  active  touch  with  that 
country  and  people  whose  language  they  are  called  upon  to  teach 
the  American  youth. 

Such  a  body  of  teachers  is  protected  from  the  danger  of  continuing 
too  long  in  the  beaten  track  or,  unresponsive  to  the  vigorous  life 
of  the  present,  of  feeling  an  undue  regard  for  the  old  and  musty  in 
literature.  Such  teachers  will  never  forbid  new  and  valuable 
material  to  enter  the  class-room  merely  because  the  present  reading 
course,  which  occupies  its  place  by  right  of  inheritance  and  is  suffused 
with  the  fading  glow  of  classical  tradition,  offers  no  opportunity  for 
individual  choice. 

From  what  view-point,  then,  shall  a  German  reading  course  for 
secondary  schools  in  America  be  formulated .'  Whenever  we  seek 
for  a  way,  we  first  look  at  the  end  toward  which  that  way  will  lead 
us.     And  once  we  have  decided  upon  our  way,  we  direct  our  glance 


A  READING  COURSE   IN  GERMAN  89 

again  and  again  upon  that  goal  to  which  we  are  striving,  to  assure 
ourselves  at  every  step  that  we  are  not  wandering  from  our  purpose. 

The  following  words  embrace  what  should  ever  stand  as  a  lumi- 
nous beacon  before  the  mind  of  the  German  teacher  in  America  :  Ac- 
quaintance on  the  part  of  the  student  with  Germany,  with  the  nature 
and  customs  of  the  German  people,  with  Germany's  culture  and  intel- 
lectual life. 

All  reading  in  class  and  at  home  should  serve  this  end,  and  even 
the  choice  of  the  first  book  should  be  made  in  accordance  with 
the  principle  just  stated,  for  the  primer  is  the  beginning  of  all  Ger- 
man instruction.  Because  I  am  an  unconditional  adherent  of  the 
analytical-inductive  method,  I  would  recommend  that  form  of  Ger- 
man reading  primer  in  which  each  lesson  or  chapter  begins  with  a 
short  reading  piece,  simple  in  language  and  thought-content,  to  be 
practiced  in  class,  and  if  possible  memorized.  Whether  this  be  a 
historical  or  literary  anecdote,  a  fable,  or  a  short  chapter  from  the 
rich  storehouse  of  German  fairy-tale  and  saga,  each  separate  piece 
must  stand  in  unmistakable  connection  with  that  ideal  end  of  all 
German  instruction.  There  is  indeed  no  lack  of  material,  and  the 
more  diversified  the  contents  of  the  first  reader  are,  the  more  profit- 
able will  they  be  for  the  acquisition  of  a  wider  vocabulary,  the  more 
interesting  for  the  pupil.  Historical  and  literary  sallies  of  wit  should 
take  the  place  of  the  worthless,  every-day  twaddle  which  one  so  often 
meets  in  such  books.  I  do  not  rate  too  highly  the  ethical  value  of 
anecdotes:  but  in  many  of  them  an  important  personality  is  charac- 
terized pithily  and  pertinently  by  a  stroke  of  the  pen  ;  and  the  mere 
mention  of  such  a  personality  taken  from  one  of  the  great  ages  of 
German  history  seems  to  me  valuable. 

Open,  from  the  large  supply  of  books  of  this  kind,  the  first  on 
which  your  hand  alights,  and  you  meet  perchance  on  the  first  page 
the  tale  of  the  Turkish  ambassador  who  witnessed  a  football  game 
in  London.  What  possible  meaning  has  this  for  our  German  class- 
teaching  ?  In  another  reader  for  beginners,  what  significance  has  the 
description  of  a  Chinese  banquet  ?  Or  in  a  third,  the  journey  of  the 
Argonauts  ?  Pupils  who  wish  to  understand  German  and  Germany 
must  be  brought  from  the  very  start  into  the  national  atmosphere 
and  environment.  And  to  hold  them  there,  to  awaken  a  lasting 
interest,  their  reading-book  must  lay  before  them  suitably  chosen 
material  :  short  pieces  in  which  the  pupil  becomes  acquainted  with 
Baldur  and  Loki,  with  Siegfried  and  Kriemhild,  with  Barbarossa  or 


90  THE  TEACHING  OF  MODERN   LANGUAGES 

with  Gutenberg,  with  Frederick  the  Great  and  with  Bismarck ;  short 
texts  which  tell  of  Dornroschen  or  Riibezahl,  of  Dr.  Faust  or  Wilhelm 
Tell,  of  the  Lorelei  or  Castle  Neideck,  of  the  Strassburg  Cathedral  or 
the  Brandenburg  Gate,  of  a  mediaeval  German  tourney  or  of  modern 
military  mananivers.  To  be  sure,  so  short  a  tale  or  anecdote  opens 
but  a  tiny  peep-hole,  but  stars  and  turrets  are  seen  from  it,  and  they 
awaken  in  the  student  some  presentiment  of  the  rich  and  beautiful 
fields  beyond,  which  are  later  to  reward  him  bountifully  for  all  his 
pains. 

And  what  the  first  reader  offers,  as  it  were,  only  in  embryo,  or  in 
small  shining  pebbles,  is  systematically  developed  in  the  second  and 
rounded  into  a  more  complete  whole. 

I  am  advocating  here  the  use  of  a  collection  of  extracts.  I  know 
that  many  of  my  colleagues  have  no  regard  for  such  books,  but  this 
is  because  their  mind  is  prejudiced  by  chrestomathies  of  the  old- 
fashioned  sort,  —  thick  volumes  in  which  easy  pieces  stand  beside 
difficult,  old  selections  beside  modern,  vulgar  beside  classical,  in 
which  the  motley  confusion  of  various  styles  can  only  embarrass  the 
pupil.  Whoever  recalls  the  old  anthologies  of  Plotz,  Burguy,  Herrig, 
and  others,  will  readily  understand  why  we  used  to  prefer  to  read  the 
longer  work  of  some  author.  But  we  have  lost  our  temporary  dislike 
for  volumes  of  extracts  —  principally  because  they  are  now  presented 
in  far  more  acceptable  form.  There  are,  however,  other  practical  rea- 
sons. A  much  greater  demand  is  made  on  modern-foreign-language 
teaching  to-day  than  was  the  case  some  years  ago.  The  student 
must  now  be  made  familiar  with  the  wide  terminology  of  the  natural 
sciences,  of  the  technical  and  commercial  branches  ;  he  must  acquire 
such  a  knowledge  of  the  life,  manners,  and  customs  of  the  people  as 
it  is  absolutely  impossible  to  glean  from  the  reading  of  authors. 

And  finally  we  have  been  convinced  that  the  step  from  the  primer 
to  the  longer  work  of  a  single  author  is  too  great,  the  transition  too 
sudden.  To  fill  this  evident  gap  we  put,  in  the  teaching  of  French 
in  German  schools,  easy  prose  works,  such  as  Bruno's  Le  Tour  de  la 
France  par  deux  en/ants  and  Francinet.  Here,  in  the  form  of  an  unas- 
suming narrative,  an  author  who  writes  for  the  young  offers  the 
pupil  an  abundance  of  facts  worth  knowing  about  the  foreign  land's 
geography  and  folk-lore,  culture  and  history,  literature,  art,  and 
science.  Poems  are  interspersed  here  and  there,  and  a  kind  of 
chrestomathy  results,  one  which  is  quite  different  from  those  pub- 
lished in  former  days,  and  above  all  to  be  recommended  on  account 


A  READING  COURSE  IN  GERMAN  91 

of  its  uniform  style.  Something  similar  must  assuredly  have  been 
formulated  for  the  teaching  of  German  in  American  schools,  or  at 
least,  to  judge  by  the  brisk  activity  in  this  sphere  of  publication,  is  to 
be  expected  in  the  near  future. 

I  think  also  of  a  German  reader  on  the  lines  of  the  Gliick  Anf  oi 
the  late  Carla  Wenckebach  and  Margarethe  Miiller,  or  the  Third 
Germa?i  Reader  of  Dr.  Weineck.  In  such  a  book  the  material  is  laid 
before  the  pupils  in  more  detailed  form  than  was  possible  in  the 
primer  ;  through  all  the  diversity  of  the  text,  however,  the  goal  toward 
which  we  are  striving  is  kept  clearly  in  view.  The  pupil  will  be 
taught  of  the  German  gods  and  sagas,  of  important  chapters  in  Ger- 
man history,  of  places  famous  for  German  art,  of  German  poets,  of 
German  proverbs,  and  of  the  beauties  of  the  German  popular  ballad. 
The  method  by  which  the  Wenckebach-Miiller  text-book  prepares 
the  way  for  a  comprehension  of  Goethe's,  Heine's,  Uhland's,  and 
Riickert's  poetry,  by  means  of  a  judicious  prose  rendering  placed 
before  each  poem  is  worthy  of  all  praise. 

It  is  surely  wise  that  the  main  facts  of  the  lives  and  works  of  our 
classical  poets,  whose  masterpieces  the  pupils  are  going  to  read  later, 
should  not  be  held  back  for  some  future  literature  period.  Interesting 
outlines  of  a  great  poet's  life  should  be  given  as  reading  material  in 
the  second  year  of  the  high  school.^ 

If  our  course  is  actually  to  lead  us  to  that  goal  which  rightly  deter- 
mines our  choice  of  reading,  then,  on  account  of  the  broad  range  of 
knowledge  which  we  are  striving  to  acquire,  we  cannot  long  do  with- 
out a  second  anthology  of  a  high-grade  sort.  This  new  book  must 
accompany  and  supplement  the  reading  of  authors  in  the  second  and 
third  years  of  high  school,  and  from  it  material  for  private  reading 
may  be  profitably  taken.  We  must  remember  that  the  most  industri- 
ous German  teacher  can  read  in  class  only  a  very  limited  number 
of  works  which  are  valuable  from  a  literary  standpoint ;  and  yet  he 
is  expected  to  give  the  pupil  some  adequate  idea  of  the  magnificent 
treasures  that  lie  heaped  up  in  the  storehouse  of  German  literature. 
There  is  in  my  opinion  but  one  way  out  of  this  dilemma ;  a  German 
reader  for  use  in  the  advanced  classes  of  high  schools. 

If  Schiller's  Wilhchn  Tell  and  Lied  von  der  Glocke  are  read  during 
the  third  year,  the  picture  of  his  poetic  genius  may  be  supplemented  in 
this  reader  by  a  presentation  of  the  contents  of  his  other  important 

1  Such  simple  biographies  of  German  poets,  written  by  Dr.  Bernstein,  are  to  be 
found  in  the  Third  German  Reader  of  Dr.  Weineck. 


9J  THE  TEACHIM;   UK   MODERN   LANGUAGES 

dramas  together  with  interspersed  selections  from  them.  If  Goethe's 
Hermann  iind  Dorothea  be  read  in  the  fourth  year,  the  reader  could 
offer  by  way  of  supplement  a  clear  and  interesting  analysis  of 
Jphigcnie,  Tasso,  Egmont,  and  Faust,  together  with  a  chapter  from 
Diihtiing  und  Wahrhcit  as  a  specimen  of  Goethe's  prose  style. 

And  Lessing  ?  I  am  heretical  enough  to  relegate  him  altogether  to 
this  reading  book,  —  just  because  I  believe  American  pupils  should 
become  better  acquainted  with  him  than  is  possible  by  devoting 
months  to  the  reading  of  Minna  von  Barn/ielm  and  thus  having  no 
time  left  for  his  other  works.  And  it  may  be  seriously  doubted 
whether  American  pupils  will  gain  a  real  understanding  of  Lessing's 
greatness  by  reading  this  Prussian  military  piece.  For,  quite  apart 
from  the  diction  of  Minna,  which  is  a  far  cry  from  present-day  liter- 
ary language,  the  conflict  which  the  play  depicts  offers  great  difficul- 
ties for  the  comprehension  of  even  German  high-school  pupils ;  how 
much  more  then  to  the  pupils  in  American  secondary  institutions, 
before  whose  minds  the  Prussian  major,  in  actual  flesh  and  blood,  can 
never  be  successfully  conjured. 

There  are,  however,  excellent  prose  renderings  of  the  content  of 
this  best  of  German  comedies,  from  which  the  pupil  would  probably 
gain  a  clearer  idea  of  what  the  poet  intended  than  from  the  play 
in  its  entirety.  Two  or  three  characteristic  scenes  would  illustrate 
Lessing's  dramatic  style.  These  could  be  soon  disposed  of,  and 
sufficient  time  left  to  do  justice  to  Laokoon  and  JVathan,  and  to 
awaken  an  appreciation  of  the  parable  of  the  three  rings  as  told 
in  Lessing's  immortal  verses.  This  judgment  will  seem  to  many 
teachers  extremely  unorthodox,  but  I  cannot  consider  the  entire 
Nathan  suited  to  school-room  purposes.  Lessing  has  offended  poetic 
justice  in  depicting  genuinely  noble  representatives  for  but  two  of 
the  three  religions  dealt  with  in  the  play  (for  the  Knight  Templar  is 
utterly  indifferent  from  a  religious  standpoint).  Again,  Lessing  has 
given  the  real  plot  of  the  piece  a  denouement  that  even  boys  and 
girls  of  seventeen  years  look  upon  as  out  of  place  or  offensive  ;  I 
mean,  of  course,  the  unexpected  discovery  that  the  Knight  Templar 
and  Recha  are  brother  and  sister. 

Such  a  reader,  devoted  to  a  study  of  the  German  classics  in  smooth 
present-day  German  and  interspersed  with  pearls  from  the  master- 
pieces themselves,  should  also  take  into  consideration  Klopstock, 
Wieland,  Herder,  and  Heinrich  von  Kleist.  We  have  something 
similar  for   English   instruction   of  German   pupils,   a   Shakespeare 


A   READING   COURSE   IN   GERMAN  93 

reader  which  brings  the  great  English  poet  somewhat  nearer,  even  to 
pupils  of  the  Berlin  schools  which  allow  only  a  two  years'  course  in 
English. 

Should  these  suggestions  for  a  reader  in  American  schools  ever 
be  realized,  the  teacher  would  note  how  much  more  time  could  be 
devoted  to  the  present-day  literary  language,  to  the  modern  culture 
and  intellectual  life  of  Germany,  and  to  imparting  a  knowledge  (now 
so  urgently  demanded)  of  German  institutions. 

A  glance  through  what  the  College  Entrance  Examination  Board 
of  the  Middle  States  and  Maryland  designates  as  the  final  require- 
ment in  German,  and  what  it  recommends  for  reading,  is  sufficient 
to  show  the  existence  of  a  healthy  endeavor  not  to  allow  a  one-sided 
worship  of  the  classics  to  arise  in  the  secondary  schools.  The 
requirements  clearly  indicate  the  necessity  of  making  the  pupil  con- 
versant with  the  present,  every-day  language. 

But  whether  this  colloquial  speech  can  really  be  acquired  from  a 
reading  of  all  the  comedies  and  farces  there  proposed  seems  to  me 
at  least  doubtful.  If  Freytag's  Jownialisten  is  to  be  studied  with 
merely  this  end  in  view,  there  may  well  be  a  dispute  as  to  whether 
this  piece,  which  appeared  half  a  century  ago,  deserves  a  place  in  the 
reading  course.  To  dish  up  the  worthless  one-act  pieces  which 
our  fathers  and  mothers  presented  on  the  amateur  stage,  such  as 
Er  ist  nicht  eifersuchtig  and  Einer  muji  heiraten,  is  likewise  objec- 
tionable, for  we  no  longer  hear  in  them  the  tone  of  modern  conversa- 
tion, and  the  German  recitation-period  is  too  valuable  for  such  trash. 
Furthermore,  the  curtain  raisers  of  good  old  Benedix  and  Moser 
mark  such  an  ebb-tide  in  the  German  drama  that  it  seems  time  to 
point  to  the  more  recent  productions  of  real  poets  which  stand  moun- 
tain high  above  them  and  which  could  be  read  in  American  schools 
with  great  interest  and  profit.  Such  are  the  subtle  Durchs  0/ir,  a 
comedy  in  verses  by  Wilhelm  Jordan,  and  several  graceful  one-act 
pieces  by  Ludwig  Fulda ;  or  if  the  second-year  pupils  are  to  be 
given  a  merry  farce  (I  scarcely  know  if  this  should  be  the  purpose  of 
school  reading),  then  in  the  Vetfer  aus  Bremen  or  the  Nachttvachter 
by  Theodor  Korner  we  have  productions  of  one  mentioned  in  Ger- 
man literature  with  regard,  and  often  with  enthusiasm. 

To  judge  by  the  wording  of  its  printed  recommendations,  the  Col- 
lege Entrance  Examination  Board  does  not  expect  much  from  the  read- 
ing of  dramas  in  second-year  classes.  It  discards  five-act  plays  as  too 
long,  and  suggests  that  in  any  case  not  more  than  a  single  one-act 


94  THE  TEACHING  OF   MODERN    LANGUAGES 

piece  be  read  with  a  class.  And  even  this,  I  think,  would  better  be 
assigned  for  private  reading.  At  this  stage  of  the  pupil's  develop- 
ment preference  is  rightly  given  by  the  Board  to  narrative  prose,  and 
in  the  proposed  list  I  greet  with  pleasure  the  presence  of  such  authors 
as  Heyse,  Storm,  Baumbach,  Seidel,  and  Volkmann-Leander.  Ander- 
sen in  my  opinion  has  no  place  among  them.  However  beautiful 
his  tales  may  be,  he  was  not  a  German  author ;  and  if  fairy  tales  and 
legends  are  to  be  studied  connectedly  outside  of  the  reader  which 
I  have  above  characterized,  then  let  the  classic  tales  of  the  Brothers 
Grimm  be  used,  or,  better  still,  the  Deutsche  Volks-  utid  Hcldensagen  so 
simply  and  beautifully  narrated  by  Gustav  Schwab. 

The  fondness  for  Hillern's  Hbher  als  die  Kirche  I  cannot  under- 
stand. In  Gerstacker's  stead  I  would  rather  see  a  greater :  Hauff 
or  Chamisso.  That  Wilhelm  Hauff,  one  of  the  best  story-tellers  in 
German  literature,  has  not  won  the  heart  of  the  American  schoolboy, 
surprises  me.  His  fairy  tales,  his  Lichtenstein,  his  masterly  short 
stories,  belong  just  as  surely  in  the  course  of  class  and  private  reading 
as  do  Chamisso's  Peter  Schlemihl  and  Eichendorff's  Aiis  dem  Leben 
cities  Taugcnic/its.  Zschokke's  Zerbrochener  Krug  would  have  been 
long  since  forgotten,  had  not  a  greater  than  he  been  incited  to  adapt 
the  same  theme  to  dramatic  form.  To  be  sure,  I  should  not  recom- 
mend Heinrich  von  Kleist's  comedy  of  the  same  title  for  the  class 
room ;  but  more  valuable  than  Zschokke's  tale  appears  to  me  at  least 
Kleist's  Michael  Kohlhaas,  a  narrative  which  unrolls  before  our  eyes 
the  important  picture  of  German  culture  in  the  early  days  of  Mark 
Brandenburg ;  a  story  eagerly  read  in  Berlin  schools. 

Wildenbruch's  Das  edle  Blut  is  a  jewel  in  the  art  of  modern  nar- 
rative, although  one  may  object  that  American  boys  and  girls  scarcely 
have  a  proper  understanding  of  German  cadet  life.  Whoever  on 
this  account  would  prefer  another  of  Wildenbruch's  may  well  select 
Neid,  in  which  the  author  also  relates  a  boyhood  story,  but  empha- 
sizes the  universally  human  element  of  life  and  the  true  feeling  of 
the  child  mind. 

In  the  third  year  more  difficult  prose  should  be  read,  and  due 
attention  paid  to  the  classics.  Riehl  and  Freytag  are  excellently 
chosen  authors,  and  I  would  read  with  pupils  a  few  chapters  of  the 
latter's  masterly  historical  pictures,  on  account  of  their  genuinely 
German  content  and  their  classic  diction.  If  any  teacher  should 
wish  a  larger  choice,  I  would  call  his  attention  to  two  later  mas- 
ters of  German  prose,  excellent  portrayers  of  the  German  country 


A  READING  COURSE  IN  GERMAN  95 

landscape :  Theodor  Fontane,  the  author  of  Wandertmgen  durch  die 
Mark  Brandenburg^  and  the  Thuringian  wanderer,  August  Trinius.  I 
have  already  said  that  Schiller's  Glocke  and  Tell  must  retain  the  place 
of  honor  in  the  third  year.  But  in  his  Neffe  als  Onkel  and  Geisterseher 
the  pupils  become  acquainted  with  the  great  poet  directly  from  his 
weakest  side.  As  Schiller's  prose  writings  are  to  be  laid  before  the 
pupils  in  the  fourth  year,  I  can  regard  it  as  no  grave  offense  to  his 
memory  if  a  small  portion  of  the  time  hitherto  devoted  to  him  be 
given  to  the  poet-herald  of  the  new  German  Empire  —  Emanuel 
Geibel  —  and  to  the  reading  of  his  powerful  drama  Sophonisbe  or  the 
charming  comedy  Meister  A?idrea. 

Strange  to  say,  I  find  Theodor  Korner's  Zriny  overlooked  by  all 
the  proposals  for  reading  in  secondary  schools  made  from  authorized 
and  unauthorized  quarters.  Korner,  the  history  of  whose  family  is 
so  intimately  connected  with  that  of  Schiller,  Korner,  who  in  time  of 
greatest  national  agitation  "  twined  the  green  wreath  of  poetry  about 
the  German  bloody  sword  of  vengeance,"  deserves  that  American 
teachers  too  interpret  his  muse. 

In  the  fourth  year  Goethe  holds  the  central  position  ;  and  it  has 
been  recommended  that  parts  of  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit  be  read  beside 
Hermajin  und  Dorothea,  and  that  the  conception  of  the  poet  be  further 
supplemented  by  private  study  of  the  related  chapters  in  the  reader. 
If  I  am  rightly  informed,  but  twenty  to  thirty  per  cent  of  American 
high-school  pupils  receive  a  college  education.  Should  these  students 
in  the  upper  classes  of  the  secondary  schools  be  sent  out  into  the  prose 
of  life  without  some  idea  of  the  imperishable  beauty  of  Faust? 
Should  they  not  have  read  at  least  something  about  Goethe's  Gotz, 
Iphigenie,  Tasso,  and  Egmont  in  the  pages  of  a  suitably  prepared  an- 
thology ?  To  insert  two  or  three  of  these  plays  bodily  into  the  school 
course  would  be  undesirable,  as  it  would  necessitate  too  great  haste 
in  the  reading. 

Schiller  should  be  read  again  in  the  fourth  year.  But  Maria  Stuart 
with  her  fanatic  Catholicism  is  scarcely  a  heroine  for  American 
students.  Far  more  attractive  to  them  is  the  fresh  tone  of  Wallen- 
steins  Lager,  or  the  lofty  prose  of  the  Geschichte  des  Dreifiigjdhrigen 
Krieges. 

I  have  already  given  my  reasons  for  the  omission  of  Lessing's 
Minna  von  Barnhelm,  and  shown  how  the  hero  of  German  literature 
"  who  from  the  bondage  of  false  rules  led  us  back  to  truth  and 
nature  "  can  be  studied  otherwise  than  in  the  lines  of  his  one  comedy. 


90 


THE   TKACHING   OF   iMODKRN   LANGUAGES 


Some  teachers  will  dislike  to  give  up  Minna  von  BarnJtebn  on  account 
of  its  specifically  Prussian  content,  and  because  the  pupil  is  thus 
introduced  to  German  history  and  to  noble  representatives  of  the 
Prussian  military  class.  But  substitutes  in  this  respect  may  be  found 
in  Paul  Heyse's  Colbcrg,  or  in  W'ildenbruch's  Mcnnonit  or  Vdter  und 
Sohne.  In  the  Quitzows  the  Berlin  dialect  would  cause  American  pupils 
too  great  difficulty,  and  from  a  literary  standpoint  Der  neue  Herr  is  not 
on  a  level  with  Wildenbruch's  earlier  historical  dramas. 

In  order  to  escape,  however,  the  danger  of  becoming  mired  in 
"iesthetic,  literary,  historical  material,"  it  seems  desirable  in  the 
last  year  of  teaching  in  secondary  schools  to  offer  modern  prose 
reading  which  is  instinct  with  German  Realien.  In  many  American 
text-books,  in  Stern's  Geschichten  vom  Rhein,  Ans  deutschen  Stddten, 
and  others,  a  fairly  successful  beginning  has  been  made.  Knowl- 
edge of  German  government  institutions,  military  affairs,  commerce, 
and  industry,  would  be  of  value  and  interest  to  that  numerous  class 
of  young  men  who  later  in  their  travels  or  business  relations  are 
to  be  brought  into  contact  with  Germany,  They  would  feel  the 
gap  in  their  education  if  the  school  had  not  led  them  to  a  right  un- 
derstanding of  these  matters.  I  do  not  ask  that  such  works  as  Gore's 
German  Science  Reader,  Hodges's  Course  in  Scienti/ic  German,  Kutner's 
Commercial  German,  Vogel's  Scientijic  Germati  Reader,  Kron's  Ger- 
?nan  Daily  Life,  Prehn's  Jotirnalistic  German,  constitute  for  months 
the  only  class  reading ;  but  as  many  schools  devote  their  efforts  to  a 
suggestive  introduction  to  German  rather  than  to  a  complete  mastery 
of  it,  they  would  meet  the  problem  satisfactorily  if  they  began  to 
interest  the  pupil  in  reading-material  which  was  valuable  not  only  for 
its  literary  worth,  but  for  its  hold  on  the  practical  needs  of  life.  It  is 
no  longer  considered  blasphemy  in  German  secondary  schools,  even 
in  such  as  send  their  graduates  directly  to  the  university,  to  read  in 
one  semester  Shakespeare's  Ifamlet,  and  in  the  following  Tyndall's 
Fragments  of  Science,  or  a  work  of  John  Stuart  Mill. 

Surprisingly  little  attention  seems  to  have  been  shown  in  America 
to  the  literature  of  German  letters  and  memoirs,  and  yet  I  need  only 
mention  the  names  of  Humboldt,  Bismarck,  and  Moltke,  to  indicate 
how  much  could  be  derived  from  those  treasures  and  how  useful 
they  could  be  made  even  for  school  reading.  Germany's  greatest 
strategist  was  also  one  of  her  greatest  stylists  —  the  descriptions  of 
his  journeys  in  Asia  Minor  have  been  placed  by  critics  on  the  same 
level  with  Xenophon's  Anabasis. 


A  READING  COURSE   IN  GERMAN  97 

I  would  direct  attention  to  still  another  void  in  the  course  of  Ger- 
man reading  in  American  schools.  What  linguistic  and  historical 
value  Mirabeau's  addresses  had  for  us  in  our  own  school  days  !  — 
not  to  mention  the  orations  of  Demosthenes  and  Cicero.  It  may  be 
that  Bismarck  did  not  have  at  his  command  the  passionate  ardor  of 
the  Parisian  tribune,  but  the  reading  of  his  speeches  discloses  that 
he  was  one  of  Nature's  orators.  We  can  say  of  Bismarck's  utterance 
what  can  be  said  of  no  Philippic  and  no  Catilinian  oration  —  from 
his  forcible,  powerful  German  there  speaks  to  us  the  greatest  hero 
of  his  nation,  of  whose  spirit  the  sons  of  America  should  also  receive 
a  spark. 

With  hasty  strokes,  and  yet  I  hope  suggestively,  an  outline  has 
been  given  of  the  broad  domain  from  which  the  American  teacher 
of  German  may  select  his  class  reading.  With  each  new  year  the 
realm  broadens,  because  of  the  continual  rejuvenation  of  this  living 
literature ;  and  who  can  say  that  the  next  years  will  not  produce 
in  German  poetry  a  classic  which  cannot  be  passed  by  in  silence 
wherever  German  is  taught  in  all  the  world  ? 

New  problems,  new  tasks,  are  constantly  set  the  modern-foreign- 
language  teacher.  In  contrast  to  the  classical  philologian  who 
indulges  merely  in  an  affectionate  contemplation  of  the  poetical 
masterpieces  of  earlier  limes,  our  teacher  must  occupy  himself  with 
the  productions  and  the  characteristics  of  the  near  present.  And 
by  a  suitable  selection  of  reading-material  he  must  seek  to  lead 
pupils  to  a  comprehension  of  the  foreign  nation's  peculiar  intel- 
lectual and  material  culture  —  in  the  present  instance,  to  the  nature 
and  customs  of  the  German  people.  In  this  way  he  will  add  his 
mite  toward  the  upbuilding  of  that  ideal  realm  of  intellect  in  which 
the  old  world  and  the  new  shall  join  hands  in  solving  the  common 
problems  of  a  universal  humanity. 


THE    INTERNATIONAL   MODERN 
LANGUAGE   SERIES 

Eighty-se'ven  ■volumes,  including  the  best  ivorks  of  modern  foreign  literature 

THIS  series  has  long  been  favorably  known  because  of  the  practical  and 
scholarly  editing  and  the  unequaled  mechanical  execution  of  its  volumes. 
To  make  these  books  still  more  noteworthy,  important  changes  have 
recently  been  made  in  the  style  of  binding  and  in  the  prices.  In  addition  to  all 
the  excellent  features  which  have  long  characterized  the  series,  the  books  now  offer 
the  advantages  of  a  greater  attractiveness  in  appearance,  a  better  adaptation  for 
school  use,  and  a  considerable  reduction  in  price. 

A    PRICE   LIST! 


FRENCH  List  p, 

About :  La  Mkre  de  la  Marquise  et  la  Fille 
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Aldrich  and  Foster:  French  Reader 

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Boileau  :  Dialogue,  Les  H^ros  de  Roman 
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Erckmann-Chatrian :  Madame  Th^rfese. 
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et  d'Histoires 

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Authors  

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Hugo  :  Notre-Dame  de  Paris.  (Wight- 
man)  

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Popular  Science 

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quiens)       .20 


List  price 
Moireau :  La  Guerre  de  I'lnd^pendance  en 

Am^rique.     (Van  Daell) ^o 

Molifere  :  L'Avare 

Le  Malade  Imaginaire.    (Olmsted) 

Le  Misantrope.     (Bocher) 

Les  Pr^cieuses  Ridicules.     (Davis) 

Montaigne:  De  I'lnstitution  des   Enfans. 

(Bocher)  

Musset,    Alfred    de :     Morceaux    Choisis. 

(Kuhns)  

Paris  :  Chanson  de  Roland,  Extraits  de  la 

Potter:    Dix   Contes  Modemes 

Racine:    Andromaque.      (Bocher) 

Renard:  Trois  Contes  de  Noel.     (Meylan) 
Rostand:     Les   Romanesques.      (Le 

Daum) 

Sainte-Beuve  :  Extraits.   (Eiifinger) 

Sand:  La   Famille  de   Germandre. 

(Kimball) 

La  Mare  au  Diable.     (Gregor) 

Sdvigne,  Madame   de.  Letters   of.     (Har- 
rison)  

Van    Daell:    Introduction    to   French 

Authors 

Introduction  to  the   French  Language...  i 
Van  Steenderen  :   French  Exercises 


50 


15 


50 


50 


15 


GERMAN 

Auerbach;  Brigitta.     (Gore) 35 

Bernhardt:   Krieg  und  Frieden 35 

Carruth  :   German   Reader 50 

Dippold :  Scientific  German  Reader.     (Re- 
vised  Edition) 75 

Du  Bois-Reymond:  Wissenschaftliche 

Vortraige.     (Gore) 4° 

Ernst :  Flachsmann  als  Erzieher.     (Kings- 
bury)  40 


1  A  list  of  the  German  and  Spanish  books  in  the  series  is  given  on  the  following  page. 


GINN    &    COMPANY    Publishers 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  MODERN  LANGUAGE 
SERIES  —  continued 


List  price 
Ford :  Elementary  German  for  Sight  Trans- 
lation  $0.25 

Fossler's  German  Conversation 60 

Freytag:  Die  Joumalisten.     (Gregor) 45 

Doktor  Luther.    (Goodrich) 45 

Soil  und  Haben.  (Bultmann) 50 

Gcrstacker:  Gcrmelshausen.    (Lovelace) 30 

Goethe  :  Egmont.  (Winkler) 60 

Hermann   und   Dorotliea.     (Allen) 60 

Grandgent :   German  and   English  Sounds     .50 

Grillparzer:  Sappho.    (Ferrell) 45 

Haiiff:  Talcs.   (Goold) 50 

Heine  :  Die  Harzreise,  with  Selections  from 

his  Best  Known  Poems.    (Gregor) 40 

Keller:  Dietegen.     (Gruener) 25 

Kleist :     Prinz    Friedrich    von    Homburg. 

(NoUen) 50 

Lessing:   Emilia  Galotti.    (Poll) 50 

Minna  von  Bamhelm.     (Minckwitz  and 

Wilder) 45 

Luther:  Deutschen    Schriften,  Auswahl 

aus.      (Carruth) 80 

Meyer:   Der  Schuss  von   der   Kanzel. 

(Haertel) 35 

Minckwitz  and  Unwerth  :  Edelsteine 35 

Mueller:  Deutsche Gedichte 40 


List  price 
Niese  :  Aus  danischer  Zeit,  Selections  from. 

(Fos.sler) ^0.35 

Riehl :  Burg  Neideck.    (Wilson) 25 

Rosegger  :  Waldlieimat.    (Fossler) 35 

Schiller    and    Goethe:    Correspondence. 

(Selections.)     (Robertson) 60 

Schiicking  :  Die  Drei  Freier.   (Heller) 30 

Seeligniann  :  Altes  und  Neues 35 

Seume  :   Mein  Leben.     (Senger) 40 

Storm:    Geschichten   aus   der  Tonne. 

(Brusie) 40 

Immensee.    (Minckwitz  and  Wilder) 30 

In  St.  Jiirgen.     (Beckman) 35 

Super:  Elementary  German  Reader 40 

Van  Daell  :  Preparatory  German  Reader...     .40 
Von  Sybel :  Die  Erhebung  Europas  gegen 

Napoleon   I.     (Nichols) 40 

Zschokke  :  Der  zerbrochene  Krug.    (San- 
born)  25 

SPANISH 

Galdos:  Doiia  Perfecta.    (Marsh) i.oo 

Gil  y  Zarate  :  Guzman  el  Bueno.     (Primer)     .75 

Moratfn  :  El  Si  de  las  Ninas.     (Ford) 50 

Valera  :  El  PAjaro  Verde.    (Brownell) 40 


OTHER  MODERN  LANGUAGE  TEXT-BOOKS 


FRENCH  List  price 

Aldrich  and   Foster:    Foundations  of 

French $o.go 

Coppee  :  Le  Pater.   (Sumichrast) 25 

Doriot:  Beginner's  Book  in  French 80 

Part  II.    Reading  Lessons.   (Separate)...     .50 

Dufour  :  French  Grammar 60 

French  Reader,  with  Vocabulary i.oo 

Dumas:  Les  Trois  Mousquetaires.    (Sumi- 
chrast)  70 

Hugo :  Les  Mis^rables.    (Sumichrast) 80 

Knapp  :  Modem  French  Readings 80 

Van   Daell :   Memoires  du   Due  de   Saint- 
Simon  64 

GERMAN 

Bernhardt:   German  Composition go 

Collar-Eysenbach  :  English  into  German...     .25 

German  Lessons 1.20 

Shorter   Eysenbach i.oo 

Dippold:    Emanuel  Giebel's   Brunhild 50 

Doriot:  Beginner's  Book  in  German 80 


List  price 

Hempl:  Easiest  German  Reading ^0.40 

German  Orthography  and  Phonology. 

Part   1 2.00 

Miiller  and  Wenckebach:  Gliick  Auf 60 

Schiller's  Maria  Stuart 90 

Stein:  German  Exercises.     Book   1 40 

German  Exercises.     Book  II 40 

German  Exercises.     Book  II,  with  Com- 
mercial Exercises 50 

SPANISH 

Becker  and  Mor^  :  Spanish  Idioms 1.80 

Knapp:    Modern  Spanish  Grammar 1.50 

Modem  Spanish  Readings 1.50 

Lemly  :  Spanish  Accentuation 10 

Pardo  :  Pascual  Lopez 75 

Pinney :  Spanish  and  English  Conversation 

First   Book 60 

Second  Book 60 

Smith :   Gramdtica   Practica  de  la   Lengua 

Castellana.     (Nueva   Edicion) 60 


Descriptive  aiinouncements  of  these  books  ivill  be  sent  postpaid  to  any  address  on  request. 


GINN    &    COMPANY    Publishers 


CENTRAL  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

University  of  California,  San  Diego 

DATE  DUE 

0ECO2ig83 

DEC  07 1983 

APR  0  6  1984 

APR  p  7 1B54' 

MAY  0  n  1QH>1 

mni   u  u  1301 

C/59 

t/C5Z)  I/Z)r. 

UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    001  306  790    5 


